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THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 


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THE 


MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 


The  Ancient  Book  of  Genesis 


WITH 


ANALYSIS   AND   EXPLANATION    OF   ITS    COMPOSITION 


BY 
AMOS    KIDDER   FISKE 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  JEWISH   SCRIPTURES,"    ETC.,   ETC. 


Nciu  ffotfe 
THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

LONDON  :    MACMILLAN   &  CO.,  Ltd. 

1897 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1897, 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


C  »        I 


TCortoooH  IprfBS 

J.  S.  Cusliing  &  Co.  -  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

Modern  critical  research  into  the  sources  and 
character  of  the  ancient  scriptures  of  the  Hebrews 
leaves  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  Book  of  Gen- 
esis, which  was  used  as  an  introduction  to  the 
old  Jewish  law,  is  a  composite  production  made 
up  largely  of  myths  and  fragments  of  myths  em- 
bodying the  conceptions  of  the  earliest  writers  of 
Israel,  regarding  the  relations  of  that  people  to 
their  deity.  Study  of  it  in  this  aspect  gives  it 
a  new  interest  and  significance,  while  persist- 
ence in  the  old  view  of  its  origin  and  meaning 
is  in  danger  of  sinking  it  from  reverence  to  de- 
rision. 

This  would  be  a  calamity,  because  no  more  re- 
markable production  of  ancient  genius  has  been 
preserved  to  us,  and  we  may  well  be  grateful  for 
the  devoutness,  even  the  superstition,  which  has 
kept  it  through  the  ages  from  being  buried  in 
the  special  "  sacred  writings  "  of  a  particular  race 
and  a  "  peculiar "  faith.     So  preserved  and  made 

V 

41 7°30 


VI  PREFACE 

widely  familiar,  by  the  gloss  and  glamour  of  a  sanc- 
tity which  concealed  or  perverted  its  real  mean- 
ing, it  now  becomes  of  extreme  interest  to  the 
sane  student  of  human  development,  not  only  be- 
cause it  contains  the  early  notions  of  a  remark- 
able race  concerning  its  own  origin  and  destiny, 
but  because  within  it  were  planted  the  first  germs 
of  religious  conceptions  which  have  grown  and 
expanded  through  human  history  and  become  one 
of  the  powerful  factors  in  the  gradual  elevation  of 
mankind. 

The  moral  tone  which  pervades  the  Book  of 
Genesis  is  not  high,  and  the  ethical  conceptions 
of  the  writers  were  far  from  exalted  ;  their  ideas 
of  divinity  and  its  working  were  crude,  but,  con- 
sidering the  time  of  the  production,  the  height 
attained  was  lofty  and  luminous  amid  a  vast  ex- 
panse of  moral  and  religious  gloom.  The  great 
founders  of  the  Jewish  faith  laid  hold  upon  the 
eternal  principle  of  "righteousness"  in  human 
conduct  and  of  submission  to  divine  law,  so  far 
as  it  is  revealed  to  human  intelligence,  and  sought 
to  give  it  a  potent  sanction  in  the  story  of  their 
people. 

The  story  is  mythical,  the  product  of  imagina- 
tion and  race  pride,  but  in  the  compact  with  Abra- 
ham and  the  promise  to  Jacob  was  the  anchorage 


PREFACE  Vli 

of  a  mighty  cord  upon  which  hung  the  law  and 
the  prophets,  and  to  which  was  appended  the 
gospel  of  love  and  peace.  Surely  it  is  worthy  of 
study  in  all  the  candor  of  broad  enlightenment, 
and  such  a  study  the  present  writer  has  endeav- 
ored to  give  it,  hoping  to  lead  others  who  love 
light  rather  than  darkness  to  study  it  in  the  same 
spirit. 

The  text  used  in  this  volume  is  in  the  main 
that  of  the  English  translation  which  has  been 
so  long  familiar,  but  the  two  principal  versions 
have  been  collated  with  renderings  by  learned 
Hebraists,  in  other  languages  as  well  as  in  Eng- 
lish, and  liberties  have  been  taken  here  and  there 
where  the  real  meaning  could  be  made  clearer, 
while  some  obsolete  words  and  phrases  have  been 
superseded,  as  no  special  sacredness  attaches  to 
the  phraseology  of  King  James's  time.  But  an 
effort  has  been  made  not  to  mar  the  diction,  which 
has  become  in  a  sense  consecrated  by  long  famil- 
iarity. The  old  division  of  chapter  and  verse, 
which  is  largely  arbitrary,  has  been  discarded, 
and  a  division  according  to  subject  has  been 
adopted,  without  disturbing  the  traditional  ar- 
rangement of  matter. 

For  the  sake  of  a  readier  understanding,  the 
comments  and  explanations  have  been  interspersed 


viii  PREFACE 

in  the  form  of  introductions  to  the  several  pas- 
sages, under  new  headings.  It  is  the  hope  of  the 
writer  that  his  labor  may  contribute  to  a  revival 
of  the  study  of  the  oldest  of  "sacred  literature," 
more  intelligent  and  not  less  truly  devout  than 
that  which  so  long  prevailed  but  which  seems  to 
have  been  dying  out  because  it  did  not  sufficiently 
appeal  to  the  "  common  mind  "  in  an  age  of  in- 
creasing enlightenment. 

A.    K.    F. 
New  York,  April,  1897. 


CONTENTS 


Modern  Light  on  Ancient  Scriptures     . 

Material  and  Composition  of  the  Book  of  Genesis; 

I.  Earliest  Writings  of  the  Hebrews 

II.  Stories  of  the  Patriarchs 

III.  Putative  Ancestors  of  Tribes 

IV.  Origin  of  the  Written  Tales 
V.  The  First  "Sacred  History" 

VI.     The  Judean  Version    . 
VII.     Blending  the  Two  Versions 
VIII.     Evidences  of  Late  Origin   . 


PAGE 

3 


J7 
19 
23 
27 
3i 
34 
37 
39 


The  Tales  And  Myths: 

I.  The  Elohist  Account  of  the  Creation 

II.  The  Jehovist  Story  of  the  First  Family 

III.  The  Antediluvian  Generations     . 

IV.  The  Mixed  Account  of  the  Flood 
V.  Post-diluvian  Generations    . 

VI.  Abraham  takes  Possession  of  the  Land 

VII.  Abraham  as  a  Warlike  Chief 

VIII.  First  Account  of  the  Covenant  . 

IX.  First  Story  of  Hagar  and  Ishmael 

X.  The  Elohist  Account  of  the  Covenant 

XL  Another  Version  of  the  Promise  of  Isaac 

XII.  The  Cities  of  the  Plain  and  the  Family  of  Lot 

XIII.  Abraham  and  Abimelech    .... 


47 
54 
67 

7i 

84 

93 
100 
106 
no 
114 
120 
123 
133 


CONTENTS 


XIV.  Second  Story  of  Ilagar  and  her  Son 

XV.  Compact  between  Abraham  and  Abimelech 

XVI.  The  Story  of  offering  Isaac 

XVII.  The  Sacred  Burial  Place     . 

XVIII.  The  Story  of  Rebekah 

XIX.  Varied  Progeny  of  Abraham 

XX.  Isaac  and  Abimelech  . 

XXI.  The  Twin  Peoples 

XXII.  Jacob's  Journey  to  Syria    . 

XXIII.  Jacob's  Double  Marriage    . 

XXIV.  The  Birth  of  Jacob's  Sons. 
XXV.  Jacob  and  Laban — Israel  and  Syria 

XXVI.  The  Division  and  Treaty    . 

XXVII.  Jacob  and  Esau  —  Israel  and  Edom 

XXVIII.  At  Shechem  —  The  Story  of  Dinah 

XXIX.  Bethel  and  after 

XXX.  Edomite  Ethnography 

XXXI.  Joseph  and  his  Brethren     . 

XXXII.  Judah  and  his  Family 

XXXIII.  Joseph  a  Slave  and  in  Prison    . 

XXXIV.  Joseph's  Elevation  to  Power 
XXXV.  Joseph's  Brothers  seek  Relief  in  Egypt 

XXXVI.  The  Second  Journey  to  Egypt   . 

XXXVII.  Jacob's  Migration 

XXXVIII.  Settled  in  Egypt 

XXXIX.  Strange  Results  of  Famine 

XL.  Adoption  of  the  Tribes  of  Joseph 

XLI.  Poetical  Description  of  the  Tribes 

XLII.  The   Burial  of  Jacob   . 

XLIIL  The  End  of  Joseph     . 

The  Unknown  Homer  of  hie  Hebrews  . 


MODERN    LIGHT   ON    ANCIENT 
SCRIPTURES 


MODERN    LIGHT   ON   ANCIENT 
SCRIPTURES 

It  is  more  than  two  hundred  years  since  Rich- 
ard Simon,  the  greatest  Oriental  scholar  of  his 
time,  in  his  "  Histoire  Critique  du  Vieux  Testa- 
ment," presented  the  conclusion  to  which  his 
study  had  led  him,  that  the  so-called  "  Books  of 
Moses  "  were  put  together  by  the  Scribes  of  the 
time  of  Ezra,  making  free  use  of  older  material. 
He  was  assailed  by  the  whole  Christian  world  with 
such  a  storm  of  denunciation,  that  though  he 
defended  his  position  valiantly,  and  with  a  wealth 
of  learning  and  argument  to  which  his  assailants 
were  deaf,  he  was  so  overwhelmed  with  sheer 
abuse  that  scholarship  was  practically  silenced  on 
the  subject  for  a  century.  Though  silenced,  it 
did  not  cease  its  explorations. 

Among  its  discoveries  was  a  certain  difference 
in  what  was  palpably  the  oldest  material  of  the 
Pentateuch  in  the  use  of  the  name  of  the  deity. 
There  was  nothing  new  in  the  observation  that 
this  name  was  sometimes  Elohim  and  sometimes 

3 


4  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Jehovah  (Yahweh),  but  it  was  found  that  other 
marked  differences  characterized  the  material  in 
which  these  terms  were  severally  used  in  the  Book 
of  Genesis  and  the  first  chapters  of  Exodus.  The 
first  to  set  forth  these  differences  in  a  critical  way, 
and  to  analyze  the  material  with  a  view  to  a  clear 
separation  of  the  component  parts,  was  Dr.  Jean 
Astruc,  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  But 
such  a  study  of  scripture  was  still  so  severely 
discountenanced  as  to  give  encouragement  rather 
to  the  sneering  cynicism  of  Voltaire,  than  to  the 
conscientious  study  of  devout  scholars. 

It  was  not  until  De  Wette  began  to  present  the 
results  of  his  study  early  in  the  present  century  in 
Germany,  that  real  learning  and  thought  upon 
this  most  interesting  subject  gained  sufficient 
hearing  to  enter  upon  the  career  of  conquest 
which  the  close  of  the  century  is  likely  to  accept 
as  a  complete  triumph.  The  two  greatest  workers 
in  the  field  for  a  long  time  were  Ewald  at  Tu- 
bingen and  Reuss  at  Strasburg.  Ewald  not  only 
had  a  vast  command  of  Semitic  and  Oriental  lore, 
but  he  shrank  from  no  conclusion  to  which  know- 
ledge and  reason  led  him,  and  he  had  the  courage 
to  state  and  to  defend  any  position  at  which  he 
arrived.  A  great  deal  still  depended  upon  infer- 
ence from  incomplete  data,  and  upon  conjectures 


LIGHT   ON  ANCIENT   SCRIPTURES  5 

supported  by  uncertain  indications,  and  much  of 
what  Ewald  put  forth  was  subject  to  later  cor- 
rection. 

The  next  great  advance  was  made  when  Abra- 
ham Kuenen  of  Leyden  began  the  publication  in 
1 86 1  of  his  history  of  the  origin  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment books.  Other  learned  scholars  were  working 
simultaneously  in  the  same  field  in  Germany  and 
France,  notably  Noldeke,  Schrader,  Graf,  Kayser, 
and  Reuss,  all  tending  to  the  same  goal.  Kuenen 
in  his  later  work,  the  "  History  of  the  Religion  of 
Israel,"  benefited  by  the  results  of  their  labor,  and 
modified  some  of  his  earlier  conclusions.  Pro- 
fessor Edouard  Reuss  of  Strasburg,  a  Protestant 
theologian,  in  his  monumental  work,  "  La  Bible, 
Traduction  Nouvelle  avec  Introductions  et  Com- 
mentaires," —  the  result  of  fifty  years  devoted  to 
study  and  labor  in  this  field,  —  candidly  accepted 
the  results  of  research  and  of  honest  reasoning 
and  presented  them  without  reserve.  Dillman  in 
his  laborious  commentaries,  though  conservative 
in  spirit,  and  cautious  in  exegesis,  accepted  the 
main  facts  as  to  the  composition  of  Genesis  and 
other  ancient  books  without  dispute.  Francois 
Lenormant,  the  French  archaeologist,  author  of 
"The  Beginnings  of  History,"  versed  as  no  other 
man  of  the  present  generation  has  been,  perhaps, 


6  THE   MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

in  Chaldean,  Syrian,  Egyptian,  Phoenician,  and 
Hebrew  antiquities,  and  a  devout  Catholic  in  his 
faith,  published  a  translation  of  "  Genesis "  in 
1883,  not  only  recognizing  the  composite  char- 
acter of  the  book,  but  presenting  its  component 
parts  distinguished  by  differences  of  type. 

Finally,  the  late  Ernest  Renan,  in  his  "  Histoire 
du  Peuple  d'Israel,"  —  the  crowning  work  of  a 
lifetime  devoted  to  Semitic  learning  and  to  the 
study  of  the  sources  of  Judaism  and  Christianity, 
—  having  the  advantage  of  all  that  had  been 
achieved  by  his  forerunners  and  contemporaries, 
and  applying  to  his  task  the  powers  of  a  mind  of 
remarkable  lucidity  and  vigor,  adopted  the  con- 
clusions as  to  the  time  and  manner  of  the  produc- 
tion of  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament  with 
the  same  confidence  with  which  the  author  of  a 
new  history  of  the  people  of  Ancient  Greece 
would  accept  the  established  conclusions  of  schol- 
ars regarding  the  origin  of  the  early  literature  of 
that  people.  That  is  practically  the  attitude  on 
this  subject  of  the  present  generation  of  learned 
theologians  and  special  Biblical  scholars  on  the 
continent  of  Europe,  of  whom  the  most  conspicu- 
ous representatives  are  Julius  Wellhausen  and 
Bernhardt  Stade. 

It  was  after   the    results    of   the    research    and 


LIGHT   ON   ANCIENT   SCRIPTURES  / 

critical  acumen  of  Ewald  had  become  familiar, 
and  the  riper  fruits  of  the  studies  of  Reuss,  Kue- 
nen,  and  Graf  had  begun  to  appear,  that  Bishop 
Colenso,  in  the  comparative  isolation  of  South 
Africa,  gave  evidence  that  at  least  one  learned 
English  mind,  and  that  within  the  pale  of  the 
church,  was  open  to  the  truth  on  this  subject 
and  possessed  the  candor  of  its  scholarship  and 
the  courage  of  its  convictions.  But  so  little  pre- 
pared was  the  English  mind  in  general  and  the 
sentiment  of  the  English  Church  in  particular, 
thirty  years  ago,  for  an  appreciation  of  such  work, 
that  Colenso  encountered  treatment  which  was 
little  short  of  persecution,  and  which  would  have 
embittered  the  life  of  a  prelate  of  less  patient 
and  serene  a  spirit ;  but  his  work  on  "  The  Pen- 
tateuch and  the  Book  of  Joshua  "  has  conquered 
its  place  in  the  literature  of  this  subject,  and  is 
now  acknowledged  to  be  "a  monument  of  sound 
learning,  unwearied  industry,  and  of  keen  critical 
insight." 

The  excitement  caused  by  Colenso's  writings 
had  scarcely  subsided  in  ecclesiastical  circles 
when  Professor  William  Robertson  Smith's  con- 
tributions to  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  on 
various  Biblical  subjects,  kindled  another,  though 
of  much  less  violence.     It  was    sufficient   in   the 


8  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  to  cause  his 
deposition  from  the  professorship  of  Hebrew  at 
Aberdeen  by  the  General  Assembly,  but  the  time 
had  gone  by  for  intolerance  toward  a  scholarship 
which  merely  insisted  upon  telling  the  truth,  and 
the  result  for  Professor  Smith  was  virtual  pro- 
motion, for  his  learning  and  high  character  won 
him  a  place  of  honor  in  the  teaching  body  of 
one  of  the  great  universities  of  England. 

This  country  has  been  singularly  slow,  not 
merely  in  accepting  the  fruits  of  investigation 
into  the  origin  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  but  even 
in  acquiring  knowledge  of  them,  and  sentiment 
on  the  subject  seems  to  be  backward  and  un- 
formed, rather  than  actually  hostile,  save  perhaps 
in  ecclesiastical  precincts  where  traditional  views 
are  still  tenaciously  held.  One  theologian  and 
scholar  within  the  pale  of  an  orthodox  denomi- 
nation who  has  candidly  and  fearlessly  taught 
what  he  has  learned  has  been  rewarded  with 
trials  for  heresy  and  efforts  to  depose  him  from 
the  Seminary  which  he  has  persisted  in  enlighten- 
ing, but  there  have  been  many  evidences  that 
public  sympathy  even  in  the  Church  is  largely  on 
his  side.  Nevertheless,  few  clergymen  venture  to 
tell  the  truth  as  many  of  them  know  or  believe 
it,    because    of   the    unpleasant    if    not    damaging 


LIGHT  ON   ANCIENT   SCRIPTURES  9 

consequences  which  it  is  likely  to  bring  upon 
them. 

It  had  long  seemed  to  the  present  writer  that 
it  would  be  an  acceptable  service  for  some  one 
in  this  country  who  was  under  no  restraint  of 
authority  and  no  prescribed  obligations,  but  ac- 
countable only  to  his  own  intelligence  and  con- 
science, to  set  forth  for  the  common  understand- 
ing- the  view  of  the  Old  Testament  which  modern 
knowledge  justifies.  He  has  thought  it  an  ad- 
vantage that  this  should  be  done  by  one  who 
was  not  only  free  from  theological  preposses- 
sions, but  whose  working  life  had  not  been  ab- 
sorbed in  the  special  study  which  is  liable  to 
narrow  the  view  and  impair  the  sense  of  pro- 
portion. It  would  be  a  rare  gift  if  one  who  had 
devoted  years  to  close  research  and  a  profound 
study  of  details  should  be  able  to  present  the 
broad  general  results  attractively  to  the  unlearned 
reader.  In  short,  the  present  writer  had  the  pre- 
sumption to  consider  himself  particularly  qualified 
to  do  just  what  he  thought  ought  to  be  done 
and  what  he  has  attempted  to  do  in  his  little 
work  upon  "The  Jewish  Scriptures." 

Now  he  undertakes,  perhaps  with  still  greater 
presumption,  to  present  one  example  of  the  an- 
cient  Hebrew  books,   so   analyzed  and   examined 


10  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

as  to  demonstrate  the  manner  of  its  production, 
and,  as  it  seems  to  him,  convincingly  to  justify 
the  general  view  which  he  has  taken  of  the 
whole  collection.  Among  the  conclusions  which 
he  takes  as  established  beyond  further  dispute 
are  these :  The  first  six  books  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament—  the  Pentateuch  and  Book  of  Joshua,  or 
the  Hexateuch  —  which  embody  the  ancient  cove- 
nants and  the  Jewish  law,  were  put  into  their 
present  form  after  the  return  from  the  exile  in 
Babylon,  when  the  Levitical  system  of  the  sec- 
ond temple  was  developed.  The  code  which 
constitutes  the  bulk  of  the  Book  of  Leviticus, 
but  parts  of  which  are  reiterated  in  the  last 
chapters  of  Exodus  and  scattered  through  Num- 
bers and  Joshua,  was  then  formulated,  and 
woven  somewhat  crudely  into  the  old  narratives 
of  the  early  history  of  the  people,  which  were 
modified  and  adapted  for  the  purpose,  especially 
the  last  sixteen  chapters  of  Exodus  and  consid- 
erable passages  in  Numbers.  The  Book  of  Deu- 
teronomy, which  was  included  in  the  "  Torah," 
contained  the  statement  of  the  law,  which  was 
put  in  form  in  the  time  of  Josiah's  reforms,  and 
which  the  High  Priest,  Hilkiah,  pretended  to 
have  found  in  the  temple.  The  old  primitive 
or  "  Sacred "  history  of  the   people  was  used  as 


LIGHT   ON   ANCIENT   SCRIPTURES  1 1 

the  framework  of  narrative  for  the  entire  system 
of  prescriptions  and  requirements,  and  of  laws 
and  ordinances  for  restored  Judaism,  which  it 
was  the  special  purpose  of  the  priests  and 
Scribes  to  consecrate.  This  Sacred  History  had 
been  compiled  in  the  time  of  Hezekiah,  after 
the  fall  of  Samaria,  and  near  the  end  of  the 
eighth  century  B.C.,  mainly  from  two  older  ver- 
sions, one  of  which  had  been  produced  in  the 
Northern  Kingdom,  and  the  other  at  Jerusalem, 
from  half  a  century  to  a  century  before.  This 
material  constitutes  the  bulk  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  and  the  first  part  of  Exodus,  and  is 
traceable  in  fragments  through  the  other  books. 
In  regard  to  the  matters  dealt  with  in  the 
present  volume,  there  is  now  little  dispute  among 
candid  scholars,  so  far  as  the  main  facts  are 
concerned.  The  chief  differences  ,of  opinion, 
even  among  theologians  of  real  learning,  relate 
to  what  they  call  the  "divine  element"  working 
through  human  means  and  agencies  toward  an 
ultimate  result.  The  present  writer  has  no  dis- 
pute with  those  who  contend  for  this  "  divine  ele- 
ment," and  who  indulge  in  controversies  as  to  its 
extent  and  potency.  He  acknowledges  a  divine 
element  in  all  humanity,  a  divine  energy  work- 
ing in  all  human    history,  as   it  wrought   in    the 


12  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

development  of  the  physical  universe  before 
human  history  began.  He  has  no  doubt  of  a 
divine  power  in  the  mighty  ethical  and  religious 
development  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  in  the 
beautiful  aesthetic  development  of  the  ancient 
Greeks,  in  the  development  of  the  capacity  for 
organization  and  government  in  the  ancient 
Romans,  and  in  the  combination  and  inter-working 
of  these  factors  under  the  blending  influence  of 
Christianity  in  modern  civilization. 

Equally  divine  to  his  mind  is  the  extension  of 
knowledge  through  science,  research,  reasoning, 
and  philosophy  in  these  latter  times,  correcting  the 
errors  of  the  past,  and  clearing  the  eternal  verities 
from  the  incrustations  of  ignorance  and  super- 
stition. It  is  no  less  a  sacred  duty  to  accept 
the  truth  as  it  is  revealed  now,  than  to  accept 
so  much  06  it  as  may  have  been  contained  in 
what  was  "said  by  them  of  old  time."  "The 
eternal  years  of  God  "  are  on  the  side  of  truth, 
and  time  was  never  so  old  and  so  laden  with  wis- 
dom as  it  is  to-day.  Divine  revelation  has  not 
been  confined  to  one  age  or  one  people,  and  it 
never  employed  human  elements  and  human 
agencies  with  more  effect  than  at  present. 

In  analyzing  and  explaining  the  Book  of  Gene- 
sis the  writer  has  pursued  the  same    method  in 


LIGHT   ON  ANCIENT   SCRIPTURES  13 

detail  which  he  followed  in  a  broad  general  way 
in  dealing  with  the  whole  Old  Testament  collec- 
tion. He  has  studied  the  work  of  others  with  a 
view  to  enlightening  himself,  and  then  he  has 
studied  the  production  in  hand  by  the  light  which 
he  has  gained.  He  has  not  summarized  what 
others  have  said  or  discussed  their  conclusions, 
and  he  has  felt  entirely  free  to  think  for  himself 
and  present  the  views  which  he  has  reached. 
The  one  claim  he  makes  is  that  of  sincerity  of 
purpose  and  a  desire  to  serve  the  cause  of  truth, 
which  is  everlasting  and  always  divine. 


MATERIAL    AND    COMPOSITION 
OF   THE    BOOK   OF   GENESIS 


EARLIEST    WRITINGS    OF    THE    HEBREWS 

It  is  a  matter  of  inference  from  a  variety  of 
indications  how  early  in  the  history  of  the  an- 
cient Hebrews  writing  came  into  use  among  them. 
Their  language  was  substantially  the  same  as 
that  of  the  other  Semitic  peoples  about  them, 
including  the  Canaanite  tribes  which  they  had 
subjugated,  and  which  were  akin  to  them  in  ori- 
gin, and  their  alphabet  was  derived  from  their 
neighbors  on  the  northwest,  the  Phoenicians.  It 
must  have  been  late  in  the  period  of  the  "Judges," 
from  eleven  to  twelve  centuries  before  the  Chris- 
tian era,  and  two  or  three  centuries,  at  least,  after 
the  invasion  of  the  country  of  the  Canaanites,  when 
the  language  was  reduced  to  written  form,  and 
there  is  no  trace  of  literary  production  in  that 
form  before  the  time  of  David,  unless  it  be  found 
in  the  statement  that  the  prophet  Samuel  made  a 
record  of  the  manner  of  setting  up  the  first  king- 
dom, a  statement  which  is  contained  in  an  account 
compiled  long  after  the  event. 

The  first  writings  of  which  we  have  any  actual 
trace  were  those  which  embodied  the  traditions 
c  17 


1 8  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

of  the  escape  from  bondage  in  Egypt  and  the 
struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  land  occupied 
at  the  time  the  writings  were  made.  These  tra- 
ditions had  been  preserved  by  oral  repetition,  as 
was  common  everywhere  in  primitive  times,  until 
they  could  be  gathered  up  in  a  more  enduring 
vehicle  of  transmission. 

The  "  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah  "  and  the 
"Book  of  Jasher"  —  whether  these  were  indepen- 
dent productions  or  parts  of  one  collection  cannot 
be  clearly  determined  from  the  scanty  references 
—  were  the  first  receptacle  of  the  legends  con- 
nected with  the  invasion  and  conquest  of  Canaan, 
and  the  conflicts  which  preceded  the  establishment 
of  the  Kingdom.  The  lament  of  David  over  the 
death  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  is  said  by  the  compiler 
of  the  Book  of  Samuel  to  be  written  in  the  "  Book 
of  Jasher,"  which  indicates,  at  least,  that  the  col- 
lection had  not  been  closed  when  David  became 
the  King  of  Judah.  This  collection  of  the  tra- 
ditions of  Israel's  heroic  age  appears  to  have 
furnished  much  of  the  material  or  many  of  the 
suggestions  for  the  narratives  of  the  Books  of 
Judges  and  Samuel,  and  for  some  of  the  episodes 
of  the  escape  from  Egypt  and  the  conquest  of 
Canaan,  including  those  of  the  late  and  artificial 
account  of  Joshua's  exploits. 


II 


STORIES    OF    THE    PATRIARCHS 

It  is  pretty  clear  that  it  was  after  the  division 
of  the  Kingdom  and  the  establishment  of  Jero- 
boam as  the  first  ruler  of  the  Northern  realm 
that  the  ethnic  myths,  known  as  the  "  Stories  of 
the  Patriarchs,"  first  appeared.  It  has  been  com- 
mon, even  for  those  who  admit  that  their  original 
production  could  not  have  been  earlier  than  that 
time,  to  assume  that  they  were  based  upon  traditions 
of  the  Nomadic  days  before  the  migration  into 
Egypt,  preserved  from  generation  to  generation  by 
oral  transmission,  but  that  is  extremely  doubtful. 
Considering  the  variety  of  ethnic  and  mythic  mean- 
ings still  traceable  in  these  tales  and  their  many 
points  of  contact  with  the  relations,  purposes,  and 
ideas  of  the  time  and  place  of  their  production, 
it  is  more  likely  that  they  were  the  imaginative 
offspring  of  the  genius  of  that  time  and  place. 

The  aspects  of  Nomadic  life  were  still  familiar 
in  the  neighboring  plains  on  the  east,  and  the 
Nomadic  instinct  of  the  Hebrews  was  always 
yearning  for  its  freedom   and   simplicity.     It    in- 

19 


20  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

spired  the  ideals  which  determined  their  aspira- 
tions and  rendered  them  weak  as  an  organized 
nationality.  And  yet,  there  is  no  clear  evidence 
that  they  carried  memories  or  definite  traditions 
of  their  own  Nomadic  days  through  the  dark 
bondage  in  Egypt  and  the  long  struggle  from 
the  deliverance  to  the  conquest.  The  impress 
of  the  infant  days  of  their  race  was"  indelible ; 
the  tendency  then  begotten  never  died,  and  there 
were,  no  doubt,  cherished  associations  of  name 
and  place  that  survived  through  ages  of  trial, 
but  the  actual  persons  and  deeds  of  their  ancestry 
were  utterly  forgotten. 

When  their  first  writers  began  to  supply  this 
lack  by  their  own  creations,  the  two  kingdoms 
of  Judah  and  Ephraim,  the  latter  monopolizing 
the  ancient  name  of  Israel,  were  at  the  height  of 
the  antipathy  engendered  by  the  division  of  the 
first  kingdom,  and  were  engaged  in  their  earliest 
rivalry  as  separate  nations,  with  Ephraim  the 
stronger  and  more  confident.  Being  the  immedi- 
ate neighbor  of  Phoenicia  and  having  as  its  ruler 
a  man  of  uncommon  ability  and  energy,  who  had 
enjoyed  the  advantage  of  a  long  sojourn  in  Egypt 
under  the  favor  of  the  monarch  of  that  country, 
Ephraim  entered  upon  a  period  of  intellectual 
and  literary  activity   of  which  Judah,  under  the 


STORIES   OF   THE   PATRIARCHS  21 

feeble  and  reactionary  reign  of  Rehoboam,  the 
son  of  Solomon,  showed  no  sign.  It  was  at  this 
time,  in  the  Kingdom  of  the  North,  that  the  patri- 
archal stories  first  appeared.  They  are  usually 
spoken  of  as  a  collection,  but  they  seem  to  have 
formed  a  series  with  no  clear  sequence  or  cohe- 
rency, and  they  underwent  variations  which  in 
time  produced  different  versions. 

If  we  recall  the  situation  of  the  time  we  shall 
find  the  Kingdom  of  Israel  (Ephraim)  in  the  first 
flush  of  its  pride  and  power,  with  a  sense  of 
superiority  over  Judah,  mingled  with  a  degree 
of  fraternal  enmity ;  with  a  kindly  feeling  toward 
Egypt,  and  friendly  relations  with  Syria,  and 
with  a  scorn  for  the  subjugated  tribes  of 
Canaan.  Associated  with  Ephraim  was  the 
closely  related  tribe  of  Manasseh  and  the  North- 
ern provinces,  which  had  names  that  were  rather 
territorial  than  tribal,  and  there  was  a  disposi- 
tion to  detach  from  Judah,  the  warlike  com- 
munity of  Benjamin,  which  lay  on  the  division 
line,  and  which  had  furnished  the  first  king  of 
all  Israel,  whose  dynasty  had  been  cut  short  by 
David. 

There  were  rooted  enmities  for  the  Edomites 
and  Moabites,  which  were  common  to  all  the 
tribes,  and    had  been  inherited  from  the  time  of 


22  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

the  long  struggle  through  the  deserts  on  the 
way  to  the  conquest  of  the  land  of  the  Canaan- 
ites,  for  the  hostile  spirit  of  those  peoples  had 
added  to  the  length  and  the  hardships  of  the 
struggle.  There  had  been  many  a  conflict  with 
the  Ammonites  who  were  akin  to  Moab,  and 
with  the  predatory  Amalekites  of  the  South,  and 
these  also  were  rated  as  hereditary  enemies. 

The  dominant  sentiment  of  Israel  was  pride  of 
race  and  a  sense  of  superiority,  though  the  ancient 
relationship  of  the  Semitic  peoples  of  the  whole 
region  from  the  "  Great  River "  to  the  sea,  and 
to  the  "  River  of  Egypt,"  including  the  Ishmael- 
ites  and  Midianites  of  the  Arabian  desert,  was 
acknowledged,  save  that  the  subjugated  and  de- 
spised Canaanites  were  cut  off  from  that  noble 
stock.  The  victims  of  conquest  and  of  the  sen- 
timent engendered  by  it,  were  relegated  to  an 
inferior  origin,  and  ejected  from  the  family  in 
which  they  were  born.  Knowledge  of  the  great 
eastern  Empire  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 
was  imperfect  and  somewhat  vague,  and  all 
beyond  to  the  east  and  north,  was  mystery. 
There  was  a  tradition  that  the  Hebrews  —  a 
name  that  signified  "  from  beyond  "  —  had  origi- 
nally migrated  from  the  northern  plains  of  Meso- 
potamia ( Paddan-aram). 


Ill 

PUTATIVE    ANCESTORS    OF    TRIBES 

Abram,  or  Abraham,  was  a  revered  name 
among  all  the  Semitic  peoples,  and  the  Syrians, 
Arabians,  and  Phoenicians,  as  well  as  the  He- 
brews, had  their  separate  lines  of  tradition  con- 
necting with  it.  It  even  figured  in  the  fabulous 
history  of  the  Chaldaeans.  When  the  Israelites 
began  to  produce  their  ethnic  myths,  explain- 
ing and  glorifying  their  origin,  their  superior- 
ity, and  their  special  claim  to  the  land  of  which 
they  had  taken  possession,  and  to  exalt  their 
God  above  all  other  deities,  they  appropriated  as 
peculiarly  their  own  the  fatherhood  of  Abraham 
and  relegated  to  an  inferior  position  all  the 
other  reputed  progeny  of  Terah,  who  had  come 
from  the  mysterious  land  of  "Ur  of  the  Chaldees." 

The  Ishmaelites  and  Midianites  were  allowed  to 
be  of  a  direct  descent  from  Abraham,  but  in  an 
inferior  sense.  A  close  relation  was  permitted  to 
the  Edomites,  but  they  were  humiliated  to  a  sec- 
ondary place.  The  Syrians  were  set  off  on  a 
collateral   branch    as    descendants   of    Abraham's 

23 


24  THE   MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

brother  Nahor,  while  the  hated  Moabites  and 
Ammonites  were  placed  on  another  line  with  the 
stamp  of  death  and  incest  on  their  origin.  The 
Israelites  alone  were  of  the  pure  strain  of  Abram, 
the  "  high  father,"  who  became  Abraham,  the 
"father  of  many,"  the  favored  offspring  of  Sarai 
("the  princess"),  doubly  sanctified  by  divine  prom- 
ise and  by  birth  in  her  old  age,  after  a  long  life 
of  barrenness. 

There  were  traditions  of  an  ancient  branch  of 
the  Hebrew  family  on  the  Philistine  border  in  the 
south,  about  the  old  fane  of  Beersheba,  or  the 
Seven  wells.  This  had  died  out,  and  the  tradi- 
tions were  dim,  but  the  name  of  Isaac  ("laughter") 
remained,  and  the  Beersheba  region,  though  in 
the  south,  was  associated  much  more  closely  with 
Ephraim  than  with  Judah.  The  general  name 
for  the  Hebrew  tribes  in  their  union  had  been 
Israel  from  a  time  that  is  immemorial  now,  if  it 
was  not  then.  Many  writers  assume  that  it  ante- 
dated the  Egyptian  bondage.  According  to  the 
generally  accepted  etymology  it  meant  "  warrior 
of  God."  The  Hebrews  were  not  essentially  a 
warlike  people,  and  they  could  hardly  have  given 
themselves  that  title  in  the  Nomadic  days.  It 
more  probably  sprang  out  of  the  one  era  in  their 
history,    when    they    were    nerved    to    desperate 


ANCESTORS   OF  THE  TRIBES  25 

battle  for  the  possession  of  a  country  which  they 
claimed  by  inheritance  and  divine  promise,  and 
when  their  deity  became  a  "  God  of  battles."  It 
is  more  likely  that  Israel  was  adopted  as  a  general 
title  by  a  people  engaged  in  a  war  of  conquest, 
than  by  one  roaming  about  with  flocks  and  herds, 
or  dwelling  in  servitude  in  a  foreign  land. 

Jacob  was  a  poetical  designation  for  the  same 
people,  and  used  only  in  rhetorical  language.  It 
was  derived  from  a  word  meaning  "  heel,"  and 
was  applied  to  one  who  supplanted  or  superseded 
another.  There  is  no  indication  of  its  use  before 
the  tribes  were  established  as  a  nation,  and  its 
adoption  probably  had  reference  rather  to  the 
crushing  or  supplanting  of  the  Canaanites  than 
to  any  relation  with  the  comparatively  remote 
Edomites.  The  dominant  tribes  of  the  Northern 
Kingdom  were  poetically  designated  as  Joseph, 
the  double  derivation  of  which  may  have  a  spe- 
cial significance.  It  is  explained  as  meaning  both 
taking  from  and  adding  to.  It  may  imply  an 
original  joining  to  the  other  tribes,  or  a  separation 
from  them  in  their  later  history,  and  it  was  used 
with  apparent  reference  to  both  senses.  There 
were  traditions  of  a  tribe  or  branch  of  the  Hebrew 
people  which  had  settled  in  the  south  under  the 
name  of  Simeon,   but  which  had  faded  out,  and 


26  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

of  two  that  had  remained  to  the  east  of  the  Jor- 
dan after  the  conquest,  designated  as  Reuben  and 
Gad,  which  had  also  lost  their  distinct  identity. 
There  was  a  class  of  persons  scattered  over  the 
country,  and  wandering  from  place  to  place,  asso- 
ciated chiefly  with  the  oracles  and  shrines  of  wor- 
ship, and  known  as  sons  of  Levi,  that  being  a 
general  term  borrowed  from  Egypt  for  those  who 
served  at  altars. 

Most  tribal  and  territorial  names  in  those  days 
had  some  meaning  derived  from  characteristics  of 
the  people,  or  of  the  country  which  they  occupied, 
or  from  some  incident  in  their  history,  though 
derivations  were  frequently  assumed  from  the 
superficial  resemblance  of  proper  names  to  words 
in  common  use,  with  which  they  had  really  no 
etymological  relation.  Both  tribal  and  territorial 
names  were  often  personified,  and  taking  posses- 
sion of  a  land  was  sometimes  represented  as  the 
marriage  of  a  man  bearing  the  name  of  the  tribe 
with  a  woman  bearing  the  name  of  the  country, 
while  clans  and  provinces  figured  as  their  children. 


IV 


ORIGIN    OF    THE   WRITTEN    TALES 

Jeroboam  had  established  his  seat  of  power  at 
Shechem,  which  had  been  the  scene  of  the  turbu- 
lent effort  of  Abimelech,  the  son  of  Gideon,  to 
make  himself  king.  Near  by  was  Shiloh,  where 
it  was  said  that  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  had 
long  "rested,"  and  where  the  priests  had  received 
their  offerings  and  made  their  sacrifices  in  the 
old  days,  but  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  had  become 
a  centre  of  worship,  and  Jeroboam  deemed  it 
expedient  to  establish  his  principal  altar  farther 
away.  He  placed  it  on  the  height  at  Bethel, 
which,  under  the  name  of  Luz,  had  been  a  sacred 
place  of  the  Canaanites,  and  sought  to  make  it 
attractive  by  symbols  of  worship  similar  to  those 
of  Egypt. 

The  material  for  the  stories  of  the  patriarchs 
existed  in  the  names  of  places,  of  nations,  tribes, 
and  clans,  in  the  various  characteristics  of  these 
and  their  relations  with  each  other,  and  in  tradi- 
tions of  events  and  circumstances  to  many  of 
which  we   have    found    no   tangible    clue.     Their 

27 


28  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

chief  motive  was  to  exalt  Israel  and  degrade  its 
enemies,  to  trace  its  possession  of  the  country 
to  divine  promise  and  divine  aid,  and  to  explain, 
in  a  manner  that  glorified  rather  than  degraded  it, 
the  falling  into  Egyptian  slavery.  Incidentally, 
in  their  development  they  were  made  to  impress 
lessons  and  warnings  relating  to  the  ethics  and 
religion  of  the  time  of  their  production. 

In  outline,  the  ancestral  story  was  that  the 
father  of  Abraham  had  wandered  from  the  remote 
and  mysterious  land  of  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees " 
in  the  East  and  settled  in  Aram  of  the  rivers 
(Paddan-aram).  There  the  brother  of  Abraham, 
Nahor  (that  being  the  name  of  a  place),  had  be- 
come the  ancestor  of  Syria,  and  another  brother, 
Haran  (also  the  name  of  a  place),  had  died. 
With  his  wife  Sarah  (princess)  and  his  orphaned 
nephew  (Lot),  Abraham  went  into  the  land  of 
Canaan,  where  he  was  to  become  the  progenitor 
of  many  peoples,  and  the  specially  sanctified 
ancestor  of  the  Israelites,  and  where  the  nephew 
was  to  become  the  forefather  of  the  Moabites 
and  Ammonites  on  the  other  side  of  the  lower 
Jordan  and  in  the  region  beyond  the  Dead  Sea. 

Abraham  took  possession  of  the  land  by  pass- 
ing through  it  and  setting  up  altars  at  Shechem 
and  Bethel  and  at  Beersheba,  and  went  on   into 


ORIGIN   OF  THE   WRITTEN   TALES  29 

Egypt,  where  the  divine  care  over  his  life  was 
exhibited.  The  Judean  version  of  the  story  asso- 
ciated him  especially  with  Hebron,  the  first  scene 
of  David's  royalty,  where  his  possession  of  the  land 
was  consecrated  by  purchasing  a  permanent  burial 
place.  The  name  of  "Isaac,"  associated  with  the 
Beersheba  region,  was  given  to  the  son  of  Abra- 
ham's old  age,  and  for  him  a  wife  of  the  blood 
of  his  father's  family  was  obtained,  and  from  that 
union  came  Jacob,  who  married  in  Syria  and 
begat  the  heads  of  all  the  tribes.  Joseph  was 
a  favorite  son  and  had  been  carried  captive  to 
Egypt,  as  the  result  of  the  envy  and  spite  of  his 
brothers,  there  to  be  exalted  to  power  and  to  be- 
come the  saviour  of  the  family. 

In  filling  in  this  outline  with  a  variety  of  details 
the  first  writers  took  occasion  to  explain  in  the 
forms  of  personal  story  not  only  the  separation 
of  Lot  from  Abraham  and  the  opprobrious  origin 
of  Moab  and  Ammon,  but  the  elimination  from 
the  heritage  of  the  chosen  people  of  Ishmael  and 
Edom  and  the  birth  of  Midian  and  the  kindred 
people  of  the  desert.  They  undertook  to  account 
for  the  division  of  possessions  with  Syria  in  the 
northeast  and  with  the  Philistines  of  the  south- 
west, and  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  "  Cove- 
nants," which  were  assumed  to  be  the    peculiar 


30  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

bond  between  the  people  of  Israel  and  their  God, 
and  the  basis  of  their  worship  and  their  sacred 
law.  How  much  of  this  kind  of  literature  may 
originally  have  existed  in  oral  form,  and  how 
much  may  have  been  altogether  lost  in  the  pro- 
cess of  preservation  in  writing,  we  have  no  means 
of  knowing,  but  we  can  plainly  see  that  what 
was  preserved  became  wrought  into  a  marvellous 
patchwork.  The  seams  are  still  visible  and  the 
colors  do  not  entirely  harmonize,  but  the  effect 
produced  has  been  deeper  and  more  lasting  than 
that  of  any  other  creation  of  human  genius  in  its 
pristine  vigor. 


V 


THE    FIRST    "  SACRED    HISTORY  " 


The  most  striking  single  embodiment  of  the 
early  Hebrew  genius  appeared  in  the  writer 
who  produced  the  first  "sacred  history"  of  the 
"  peculiar  people."  He  was  of  the  Northern 
Kingdom  of  Israel,  and  his  time,  as  nearly  as 
it  can  be  determined,  was  that  of  the  reign  of 
Jehu,  at  Samaria,  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
century  B.C.,  when  the  spirit  of  "prophecy"  was 
first  awakened,  and  a  fierce  conflict  was  waged 
against  the  tendency  to  lapse  into  the  ways  and 
the  worship  of  Phoenicia,  to  which  a  strong 
impulse  had  been  given  in  the  days  of  Ahab, 
when  the  Tyrian  queen  Jezebel  exercised  so 
much  influence.  This  writer,  whose  name  and 
identity  are  lost  in  the  mists  of  antiquity,  was 
contemporary  with  the  mysterious  personality  be- 
hind the  legendary  names  of  Elijah  and  Elisha, 
and  it  is  a  fascinating  conjecture  that  he  may 
have  been  identical  with  that  personality. 

His    main    purpose  was    to    lay  down   rules   of 

31 


32  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

conduct  and  requirements  of  worship  for  the 
people  of  Israel,  and  to  give  these  the  most 
solemn  and  impressive  sanction.  This  sanction 
was  to  be  derived  from  the  covenants  of  Jeho- 
vah with  the  ancestors  of  the  people  and  his 
promises  to  their  posterity,  and  to  be  confirmed 
by  the  deliverance  from  Egyptian  bondage  and 
the  possession  of  the  land  of  Canaan  in  fulfil- 
ment of  promise.  The  worship  of  Jehovah  was 
to  be  exalted  and  sanctified  and  made  a  matter 
of  such  terrible  obligation  as  to  be  a  bulwark 
against  the  enticements  of  Baal  and  Astarte 
("Ashtoreth"). 

This  writer  had  some  familiarity  with  the  fables 
of  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  and  with  the  mythology 
of  Phoenicia,  and  he  began  his  story  with  the 
creation  of  the  world  and  the  origin  of  the  human 
race,  deriving  his  material  from  those  foreign 
sources,  but  giving  it  the  impress  of  his  own 
potent  genius.  He  made  large  use  of  the  legends 
already  existing  in  written  form,  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  the  sons  of  Jacob,  develop- 
ing and  varying  them  to  suit  his  purpose,  and  he 
used,  in  a  continuance  of  his  history  after  the 
period  of  Egyptian  bondage,  material  from  the 
"  wars  of  Jehovah,"  and  traditions  of  Moses, 
Miriam,   and   Aaron,   and    the  trials  of   the  long 


THE   FIRST   SACRED    HISTORY  33 

journey  through  the  wilderness,  blending  these 
elements  into  a  narrative  which  had  a  certain  epic 
grandeur. 

So  much  as  has  been  preserved  of  the  pro- 
duction of  this  Northern  writer  forms  what  is 
called  the  Jehovist  material  in  the  Hexateuch, 
and  from  it  a  considerable  part  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis  was  derived.  The  term  Jehovist  (or 
"Yahwist")is  employed  because  the  writer  used 
the  name  Jehovah,  or  Yahweh,  for  the  deity,  that 
being  the  name  in  common  use  at  the  time,  which 
was  assumed  to  have  been  first  adopted  in  the 
wilderness,  when  Moses  had  just  rescued  the  peo- 
ple from  their  servitude  within  the  borders  of 
Egypt  and  was  rallying  them  to  the  tremendous 
effort  of  making  their  way  to  the  possession  of 
the  promised  land. 


VI 

THE    JUDEAN    VERSION 

It  was  but  a  few  years  after  the  time  of  the 
Jehovist  that  the  writer  known  as  the  Elohist  put 
forth  at  Jerusalem  the  Judean  version  of  the 
"  Sacred  History."  Such  of  his  work  as  has  been 
preserved  is  known  as  the  Elohist  material,  or 
from  the  "  Elohist  document,"  because  he  used 
the  word  "Elohim  "  for  the  deity  down  to  the  point 
in  the  narrative  at  which  the  appellation  of  Jeho- 
vah was  said  to  have  been  revealed  to  Moses. 
There  had  been  as  yet  no  such  religious  ferment 
in  Judah  as  had  been  going  on  in  the  Northern 
Kingdom,  and  the  prophetic  spirit  had  not  begun 
that  vigorous  development  which  culminated  in 
Isaiah.  Writing  had  been  mainly  devoted  to 
genealogies  and  rude  annals,  and  the  Elohist  was 
rather  of  the  priests  than  the  prophets. 

He  was  familiar  with  the  common  traditions  of 
the  Hebrew  people,  and  with  some  of  the  stories 
which  had  sprung  up  around  the  names  of  the 
tribes,  and  had  some  knowledge  of  the  fabulous 
lore   of    Babylon    and    Assyria.      He    had    much 

34 


THE  JUDEAN   VERSION  35 

less  familiarity  than  the  Northern  writer  with  the 
learning  of  Egypt,  and  possessed  little  of  the 
creative  faculty  of  the  Jehovist,  his  form  of  state- 
ments being  more  prosaic.  He  began  with  an 
account  of  the  creation,  derived  from  the  Chal- 
dean cosmogony,  but  it  had  rather  the  quality  of 
an  infantile  science  than  of  a  poetic  mythology. 
The  Chaldean  division  of  time  into  periods  of 
seven  days,  fourths  of  the  lunar  month,  and  the 
Assyrian  practice  of  devoting  the  seventh  day  to 
rest  and  worship  had  come  into  vogue,  and  this 
writer  sought  to  give  it  a  special  sanctity  in  his 
description  of  the  creation.  He  it  was  who  em- 
bodied the  "decalogue"  in  his  narrative,  and  in 
it  consecrated  the  Sabbath  as  the  day  on  which 
the  Lord  rested  after  creating  "  heaven  and  earth 
and  sea  and  all  that  in  them  is."  When  this  little 
code  in  a  somewhat  different  form  was  incor- 
porated in  the  law  in  Jeremiah's  day,  the  Sabbath 
was  hallowed  in  remembrance  of  the  deliverance 
from  Egyptian  bondage. 

Both  the  Jehovist  and  the  Elohist  adopted  with 
some  variation  the  Babylonian  story  of  the  de- 
struction of  mankind  by  a  universal  flood,  and 
the  latter  endeavored  to  fill  the  intervals  between 
the  creation  and  the  flood,  and  between  the  flood 
and  the  migration  of  Abraham,  with  regular  gene- 


36  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

alogies,  or  "  generations,"  of  the  families  of  the 
earth  before  Israel  was  born,  using  for  the  purpose 
the  geographical  names  within  his  knowledge. 

In  fact,  the  Elohist's  work  was  largely  genea- 
logical and  ethnographical,  and  he  made  scanty 
use  of  the  patriarchal  stories.  The  Northern  ver- 
sions of  them  were  probably  unknown  to  him,  and 
he  did  not  have  the  genius  for  developing  such 
tales  which  the  writer  of  Ephraim  possessed.  He 
was  more  intent  upon  tracing  religious  customs  to 
an  ancient  origin,  and  it  was  he  who  sanctified 
circumcision  as  the  seal  of  the  covenant  with 
Abraham.  The  practice  was  neither  religious  nor 
Israelite  in  its  origin,  but  the  Israelites  had 
brought  it  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  there 
insisted  upon  its  sacredness  as  a  badge  of  their 
separation  from  all  other  peoples,  and  made  it 
the  most  rigidly  observed  rite  of  their  peculiar 
faith. 


VII 

BLENDING    THE    TWO    VERSIONS 

After  the  fate  of  Samaria  in  721  B.C.,  such 
of  the  literary  treasures  of  the  Kingdom  of  Is- 
rael as  were  fortunately  preserved  were  added 
to  those  of  Judah,  which  had  been  accumulat- 
ing at  Jerusalem,  and  a  few  years  later,  during 
the  active  and  productive  period  of  the  reign 
of  Hezekiah,  some  writer,  probably  of  the  tem- 
ple scribes,  undertook  to  combine  into  one,  the 
two  versions  of  the  sacred  history.  He  appears 
to  have  had  other  material  at  his  command,  and 
did  not  refrain  altogether  from  injecting  state- 
ments of  his  own.  He  was  by  no  means  a 
skilful  or  painstaking  compiler,  and  he  preferred 
copying  and  piecing  together  his  material  to 
recomposing  it  into  a  new  and  harmonious  nar- 
rative, and  even  when  he  attempted  to  modify  a 
statement  of  his  predecessors,  he  often  did  it 
so  clumsily  as  to  leave  evidence  of  inconsist- 
ency. 

This  writer  had  the  Judean  point  of  view,  and 
was  accustomed  to  the  use  of  Jehovah  (or  Yahweh) 

37 


38  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

as  the  name  of  the  Deity ;  but  the  shorter  Elohist 
document  was  the  basis  of  his  compilation,  so 
far  as  it  went,  and  where  he  pieced  passages  of 
the  other  into  it  he  made  no  changes  in  the 
divine  name.  Where  he  had  two  versions  of 
the  same  proceeding,  he  usually  adopted  one 
in  preference  to  the  other,  but  sometimes  he 
undertook  to  combine  them  in  order  to  save  dif- 
ferent details,  and  sometimes  where  they  varied 
rather  widely  he  used  both,  as  if  they  referred 
to  different  proceedings.  Occasionally  he  intro- 
duced fragments  of  material  quite  independent 
of  his  two  main  documents,  and  formed  connect- 
ing links  of  narrative  of  his  own. 

That  so  much  of  the  Northern  production  was 
preserved,  notwithstanding  its  exaltation  of  Ephra- 
im  and  disparagement  of  Judah,  was  due  in  part 
to  the  perfunctory  manner  of  the  compiler,  and  in 
part,  no  doubt,  to  the  softening  of  old  antipa- 
thies after  the  calamities  of  Israel  and  the  de- 
struction of  Samaria,  and  to  the  hope  that  was 
now  cherished  of  the  ultimate  reunion  of  the 
tribes  under  one  king  of  the  house  of  David. 


VIII 

EVIDENCES    OF    LATE    ORIGIN 

There  is  little  evidence  that,  during  the  in- 
terval between  the  compilation  of  this  sacred 
history  and  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the 
Babylonians,  its  contents  had  become  familiar 
even  to  the  prophets  and  writers  of  the  period. 
One  of  the  strongest  evidences  that  the  oldest 
material  in  the  narrative  was  later  than  the 
time  of  Solomon,  and  was  unfamiliar  until  after 
the  captivity,  is  to  be  found  in  the  absence  of 
all  allusion  to  what  it  embodies  in  the  other 
writings  of  the  time  of  the  kingdoms.  In  the 
books  of  Judges,  Samuel,  and  Kings  there  is  no 
sign  of  a  knowledge  of  the  venerable  ancestors 
of  the  race,  or  even  of  Moses  and  his  "  law," 
save  for  the  latter  in  passages  of  the  later  annals 
distinctly  traceable  to  redaction  after  the  exile. 

Not  only  is  there  no  sign  of  such  knowledge, 
but  the  whole  tone  and  spirit  of  the  narratives  and 
the  character  of  their  contents  are  inconsistent 
with  its  existence.  In  the  later  literature  we 
meet    with    the    names     Israel    and    Jacob    and 

39 


40  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Joseph,  as  well  as  Ephraim  and  Judah,  in  their 
general  national  application,  but  with  no  refer- 
ence to  such  personalities  as  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  and  the  sons  of  Jacob. 

The  prayer  put  in  the  mouth  of  Solomon  at  the 
dedication  of  the  temple  by  the  late  compiler  of 
the  annals  of  his  reign,  is  anachronistic  and  out 
of  keeping  with  the  character,  but  while  it  con- 
tains repeated  appeals  to  the  "God  of  Israel," 
there  is  no  recognition  of  the  God  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob.  In  the  strange  passage  which 
represents  the  prophet  Elijah  as  praying  to  Jeho- 
vah in  competition  with  the  prophets  of  Baal,  he 
invokes  the  "God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of 
Israel,"  but  elsewhere  in  the  annals,  from  the 
conquest  to  the  doom  of  the  kingdom,  these 
venerable  names  do  not  appear,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  this  phrase  in  the  story  of  Elijah  reminds 
us  of  the  coincidence  of  time  and  similarity  of 
character  in  the  production  of  the  Jehovist  docu- 
ment and  the  legend  of  the  prophet  of  Carmel. 

The  phrases,  "the  posterity  (or  seed)  of  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob"  and  "the  covenant  with 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,"  are  common  in  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy,  and  the  former  appears 
once  in  the  writings  of  Jeremiah,  who  was  almost 
certainly  associated  with   the   production   of   that 


EVIDENCES   OF   LATE   ORIGIN  41 

book,  at  a  time  when  the  literature  of  the  temple 
already  contained  the  "sacred  history"  as  it  had 
been  compiled  in  the  days  of  Hezekiah.  Isaiah 
used  the  names  Abraham  and  Jacob  only  in  the 
ethnic  sense,  and  the  former  occurs  only  once  in 
the  writings  of  the  first,  or  real,  Isaiah.  He  shows 
no  knowledge  of  the  patriarchs  of  Israel.  Micah 
uses  the  name  of  Abraham  once,  but  in  the  strictly 
ethnic  sense.  Hosea  alone  of  the  prophets  shows 
some  evidence  of  familiarity  with  the  legend  of 
Jacob,  but  he  was  of  the  Northern  Kingdom,  and 
near  the  time  of  the  legend's  origin.  Amos,  who 
dwelt  near  the  Beersheba  region,  where  the  Isaac 
tradition  prevailed,  is  the  only  one  to  use  that 
name  even  in  its  ethnic  sense  before  the  captivity, 
save  in  the  phrase  of  Jeremiah  already  referred  to. 
The  conclusion  is  irresistible  that  nothing  was 
known,  in  the  land  of  Israel,  of  the  patriarchs,  or 
of  the  stories  in  which  their  names  figure,  until 
after  the  period  which  is  now  assigned  by  learned 
critics  for  the  production  of  those  stories,  and  that 
knowledge  of  the  Sacred  History  in  which  they 
were  incorporated  was  confined  to  a  small  class 
until  after  the  captivity,  when  the  books  of  the 
law  were  promulgated.  There  is  no  trace  of  an 
oral  tradition  of  the  personalities  or  the  families 
of  the  so-called  ancestors  of  the  Israelites  during 


42  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

the  long  period  anterior  to  the  division  of  the 
kingdom,  and  the  development  of  written  litera- 
ture, and  if  it  had  existed  it  could  hardly  have 
escaped  some  passing  allusion.  The  use  of  per- 
sonal names  to  designate  tribes  or  bands,  and  the 
putting  of  tribal  history  into  the  form  of  personal 
story,  were  common  everywhere  in  primitive  times, 
especially  among  Oriental  peoples.  The  Israel- 
ites usually  spoke  of  the  people  of  a  land  as  the 
children  of  the  land,  and  the  Hittites,  a  much 
older  people  than  themselves,  were  called  the 
children  of  Heth,  Heth  being  assumed  to  be  the 
name  of  an  ancient  personage.  There  is  a  curi- 
ous illustration  of  the  practice  of  the  first  writers 
in  personifying  tribes  in  their  ordinary  language, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Book  of  Judges,  where, 
several  generations  after  the  era  assigned  to 
Jacob's  family,  "Judah  said  unto  Simeon  his 
brother,  '  come  up  with  me  into  my  lot,  that  we 
may  fight  against  the  Canaanites,  and  I  likewise 
will  go  with  thee  into  thy  lot.'  So  Simeon  went 
with  him." 

Apparently  the  Book  of  Genesis  underwent 
little  change  after  the  compilation  in  the  time  of 
Hezekiah.  It  must  have  been  among  the  literary 
treasures  of  the  temple,  which  were  carried  from 
Jerusalem  to  Babylon  and  preserved  through  the 


EVIDENCES   OF   LATE   ORIGIN  43 

captivity,  and  after  the  return  it  was  made  the 
first  section  of  the  Torah,  as  containing  the  an- 
cient covenants  upon  which  the  early  writers  had 
based  the  law  in  its  rudimentary  form..  It  needed 
little  change  to  adapt  it  to  the  purpose.  It  was 
designated  only  by  its  opening  words,  and  the 
present  title  was  first  attached  to  it  in  the  Greek 
version  of  the  Pentateuch  known  as  the  Septua- 
gint.  The  circumstances  and  method  of  its  pro- 
duction make  it  the  most  compact  and  remarkable 
repository  of  the  first  conceptions  of  primitive 
genius  that  has  been  preserved  in  human  history. 
The  seal  of  sacredness  put  upon  it  by  the  doctors 
of  Judaism  deterred  for  ages  all  attempt  at  an 
analysis  of  its  composition,  but  the  daring  of  mod- 
ern scholarship  has  at  last  resolved  it  into  its 
elements. 


THE    TALES   AND   MYTHS 


THE    ELOHIST    ACCOUNT    OF    THE    CREATION 

The  compiler,  as  we  shall  call  the  writer  who  in 
the  time  of  Hezekiah  wrought  the  "Sacred  His- 
tory "  out  of  materials  furnished  by  his  prede- 
cessors, began  with  the  Elohist's  account  of  the 
creation,  which  occupies  the  first  chapter  and  the 
first  three  verses  of  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis, 
as  it  came  to  be  divided  long  afterwards.  The 
author  of  this  knew  something  of  the  Chaldean 
fable  on  the  subject.  It  is  not  necessary  to  assume 
that  this  knowledge  came  through  long  tradition 
from  the  time  when  the  Semitic  tribes  wandered 
as  Nomads  on  the  borders  of  Mesopotamia,  for 
there  was  not  an  absolute  lack  of  communication 
with  that  land  in  the  writer's  own  day. 

The  system  of  six  days  for  labor  and  the  seventh 
for  rest  was  of  Chaldean  origin,  had  long  been  in 
use  in  Assyria,  and  was  already  established  in 
Judah.  The  account  of  the  creation  was  made  to 
give  a  special  sanction  to  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  which  had  come  to  be  a  requirement  of 
the  religion  of  the  temple.     Otherwise,  there  is  an 

47 


48  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

infantile  simplicity  in  the  quasi  science  of  the 
description,  in  marked  contrast  with  the  mystical 
tendency  of  the  Jehovist  writer. 

The  infantile  simplicity  of  the  writer's  concep- 
tion of  the  physical  universe  is  manifest  in  every 
phase  of  the  six  days'  work  of  creation.  He  con- 
ceives first  of  the  earth  as  a  mass  of  water  welter- 
ing in  darkness,  and  of  the  appearance  of  light 
and  the  alternation  of  day  and  night  in  advance 
of  the  existence  of  the  luminaries  that  were  to 
rule  the  day  and  night  and  determine  the  seasons. 
His  notion  of  the  firmament  was  that  of  a  solid 
barrier  holding  a  mass  of  water  above  the  earth, 
forming  the  reservoir  of  rain  and  storms.  The 
same  general  idea  appears  in  the  Book  of  Job 
and  some  of  the  older  Psalms,  writings  of  sub- 
stantially the  same  age  as  this. 

In  order  to  keep  to  the  six  days  for  labor  two 
processes  are  crowded  into  the  third  day.  The 
dry  land  is  made  to  appear  by  the  simple  process 
of  gathering  the  waters  that  were  left  below  the 
firmament  into  one  place,  which  hardly  conforms 
to  any  real  physical  geography,  and  then  vege- 
tation is  brought  forth  in  advance  of  the  creation 
of  the  sun  with  its  vivifying  influences.  The 
classification  into  grass  assumed  to  be  seedless, 
plants  that  bear  seed,  and  fruit  trees,  is  of  the 


ELOHIST  ACCOUNT  OF   CREATION  49 

most  primitive  order.  The  sun,  moon,  and  stars 
are  created  after  there  have  been  three  alterna- 
tions of  night  and  day,  and  after  the  earth  has 
been  clothed  with  vegetation. 

A  day  is  devoted  to  the  production  of  the 
denizens  of  the  water  and  the  air,  and  on  the 
sixth  day  the  animals  that  occupy  the  earth  are 
brought  into  being  and  roughly  classified  as 
cattle,  reptiles,  and  beasts.  Then  comes  the 
crowning  work  of  man's  creation  in  the  image 
of  God.  This  was  strictly  according  to  the 
anthropomorphic  conception  of  the  ancient  He- 
brews. Other  divinities  might  have  the  likeness 
of  beasts,  but  their  deity  had  the  semblance  and 
qualities  of  an  exalted  man.  The  exaltation  was 
so  sublimated  as  to  make  it  the  height  of  pre- 
sumption to  provoke  comparison  by  material 
representations  of  God.  Hence  the  aversion  not 
only  to  idols,  but  to  all  portrayals  of  the  human 
form.  The  account  closes  with  assigning  the 
grass  or  "green  herb"  to  the  animals  for  suste- 
nance, and  the  cereal  plants  and  fruit  of  trees  to 
man.  In  the  mind  of  this  writer  there  was  no 
eating  of  flesh  in  the  infant  days  of   the  world. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  physical  science 
of  this  account  is  the  fancy  of  a  primitive  age, 
and    bears    no    relation    to    the    actual    origin    of 


50  THE    MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

things.  But  the  real  significance  of  the  produc- 
tion lies  in  its  embodiment  of  an  exalted  con- 
ception of  the  almightiness  of  God,  who  wrought 
all  things  out  of  nothing  by  the  mere  exercise  of 
his  will,  and  in  the  acceptance  of  the  work  of 
God  as  altogether  good.  The  sublimity  of  this 
conception  of  monotheism  so  glorifies  the  account 
of  creative  processes  that  we  lose  sight  of  the 
crude  absurdities  of  the  details. 

[I-II  4I 

In  the  beginning  God  [Elohim]  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth.  The  earth  was  waste  and 
void ;  and  darkness  brooded  upon  the  face  of  the 
deep ;  and  the  spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face 
of  the  waters.  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light : 
and  there  was  light.  And  God  saw  the  light,  that 
it  was  good ;  and  God  divided  the  light  from  the 
darkness.  And  God  called  the  light  Day,  and  the 
darkness  he  called  Night.  And  there  was  an  even- 
ing and  a  morning,  one  day. 

And  God  said,  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the 
midst  of  the  waters,  and  let  it  divide  the  waters  from 
the  waters.  And  God  made  the  firmament,  and 
divided  the  waters  which  were  under  the  firmament 
from  the  waters  which  were  above  the  firmament : 
and  it  was  so.  And  God  called  the  firmament  Heaven. 
And  there  was  an  evening  and  a  morning,  a  second 
day. 


ELOHIST   ACCOUNT   OF   CREATION  51 

And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven 
be  gathered  together  unto  one  place,  that  the  dry 
land  may  appear  :  and  it  was  so.  And  God  called 
the  dry  land  Earth  ;  and  the  gathering  together  of 
the  waters  called  he  Seas  :  and  God  saw  that  it  was 
good.  And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  put  forth  grass, 
herb  yielding  seed,  and  fruit  tree  bearing  fruit  after 
its  kind,  wherein  is  the  seed  thereof,  upon  the  earth  : 
and  it  was  so.  And  the  earth  brought  forth  grass, 
herb  yielding  seed  after  its  kind,  and  tree  bearing 
fruit,  wherein  is  the  seed  thereof,  after  its  kind  ;  and 
God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And  there  was  an  even- 
ing and  a  morning,  a  third  day. 

And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firma- 
ment of  the  heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the 
night ;  and  let  them  be  for  signs,  and  for  seasons, 
and  for  days  and  years ;  and  let  them  be  for  lights 
in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to  give  light  upon 
the  earth  :  and  it  was  so.  And  God  made  the  two 
great  lights  ;  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day,  and 
the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night ;  he  made  the  stars 
also.  And  God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of  the 
heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  and  to  rule 
over  the  day  and  over  the  night,  and  to  divide  the 
light  from  the  darkness ;  and  God  saw  that  it  was 
good.  And  there  was  an  evening  and  a  morning, 
a  fourth  day. 

And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abun- 
dantly the  moving  creature  that  hath  life,  and  let 
fowl  fly  above  the  earth  in  the  open  firmament  of 
heaven.     And  God  created  the  great  sea-monsters, 


52  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

and  every  living  creature  that  moveth,  which  the 
waters  brought  forth  abundantly,  after  their  kinds, 
and  every  winged  fowl  after  its  kind  ;  and  God  saw 
that  it  was  good.  And  God  blessed  them,  saying, 
Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  fill  the  waters  in  the 
seas,  and  let  fowl  multiply  in  the  earth.  And  there 
was  an  evening  and  a  morning,  a  fifth  day. 

And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the 
living  creature  after  its  kind,  cattle,  and  creeping 
thing,  and  beast  of  the  earth  after  its  kind ;  and  it 
was  so.  And  God  made  the  beast  of  the  earth  after 
its  kind,  and  the  cattle  after  their  kind,  and  every 
thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  ground  after  its  kind ; 
and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And  God  said,  Let 
us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness ;  and 
let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle, 
and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every  creeping 
thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth.  And  God 
created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of 
God  created  he  him  ;  male  and  female  created  he 
them.  And  God  blessed  them ;  and  God  said  unto 
them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the 
earth,  and  subdue  it ;  and  have  dominion  over  the 
fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and 
over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth. 

And  God  said,  Behold,  I  have  given  you  every 
herb  yielding  seed,  which  is  upon  the  face  of  all 
the  earth,  and  every  tree,  in  which  is  the  fruit  of 
a  tree  yielding  seed  ;  to  you  it  shall  be  for  food ; 
and  to  every  beast  of  the  earth,  and  to  every  fowl 


ELOHIST  ACCOUNT  OF  CREATION  53 

of  the  air,  and  to  every  thing  that  creepeth  upon 
the  earth,  wherein  there  is  life,  I  have  given  every 
green  herb  for  food  :  and  it  was  so.  And  God  saw 
every  thing  that  he  had  made,  and,  behold,  it  was 
very  good.  And  there  was  an  evening  and  a  morn- 
ing, the  sixth  day. 

And  the  heaven  and  the  earth  were  finished,  and 
all  the  host  of  them.  And  on  the  seventh  day  God 
finished  his  work  which  he  had  made ;  and  he 
rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which 
he  had  made.  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day, 
and  hallowed  it,  because  that  in  it  he  rested  from 
all  his  work  which  God  had  created  and  made. 

[These  are  the  generations  of  the  heaven  and  of 
the  earth  when  they  were  created.] 


II 

THE    JEHOVIST    STORY    OF    THE    FIRST    FAMILY 

If  the  Jehovist  gave  any  account  of  the  creation 
of  the  earth,  it  was  omitted  by  the  compiler,  who 
apparently  interpolated  the  statement  "  these  are 
the  generations  of  the  heaven  and  of  the  earth," 
with  reference  to  what  precedes  and  for  the  purpose 
of  connecting  the  two  fragments.  He  left  traces 
of  a  radical  difference  of  view  as  to  the  origin  of 
things,  for  where  the  Elohist  represents  the  land 
as  emerging  from  a  waste  of  waters,  the  Jehovist 
assumes  an  arid  waste  of  land  in  need  of  rain  to 
make  it  fruitful.  The  latter's  conceptions  were 
more  mythological  in  quality  and  he  was  evidently 
more  familiar  with  Babylonian  and  Phoenician 
fable,  which  he  used  in  a  fragmentary  way  and 
transmuted  with  the  touch  of  an  original  genius. 

The  peculiarly  anthropomorphic  character  of  his 
conception  of  the  deity  is  evident  throughout.  In- 
stead of  the  mysterious  Elohim  bringing  all  things 
into  being  by  the  fiat  of  his  will,  we  have  the  Yah- 
weh  who  forms  man  out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground 
and  breathes  into  him  the  spirit  of  life.  He  plants 
a  garden  and  places   the  man  in  it  to  dress  and 

54 


STORY   OF   THE   FIRST    FAMILY  55 

keep  it.  Out  of  the  ground  he  makes  the  trees 
to  grow  for  the  delight  of  the  eye  and  to  furnish 
food,  and  out  of  the  ground  he  forms  the  birds 
and  beasts,  after  he  has  made  man  from  the  dust, 
and  brings  them  to  man  to  receive  their  names. 
Woman  he  creates  to  be  man's  helpmeet  by  tak- 
ing of  his  substance  and  moulding  it  ("  building" 
in  the  original)  into  her  form.  It  is  a  story-book 
account  of  making  living  things. 

In  it  there  are  suggestions  of  primitive  deriva- 
tion. The  notion  that  man  came  from  the  dust 
and  returned  to  the  dust  was  prevalent  in  the 
Hebrew  philosophy,  and  an  etymological  relation 
was  assumed  between  adam,  the  general  term  for 
man,  and  adamah,  earth.  Hence  the  making  of 
man  from  the  dust  of  the  ground.  Such  a  relation 
did  exist  between  is,  man,  in  the  special  sense  of 
"vir"  as  distinguished  from  "homo,"  and  issah, 
woman.  Hence  the  making  of  woman  from  the 
substance  of  man,  in  conformity  with  the  saying 
already  proverbial,  bone  of  his  bone  and  flesh  of 
his  flesh.  The  saying  that  a  man  shall  leave  his 
father  and  mother  and  cleave  unto  his  wife  can 
seem  appropriate  in  a  being  who  has  had  no  father 
and  mother  and  beholds  a  woman  for  the  first 
time,  only  as  a  mythical  embodiment  of  general 
truths  concerning  human  society. 


56  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

The  word  "Eden"  meant  rather  a  place  or  con- 
dition of  delight  than  a  special  location,  and  the 
matter-of-fact  description  with  reference  to  the 
rivers  of  the  primitive  world  (in  brackets  below)  is 
an  interpolation  of  the  compiler.  The  Hiddekel 
was  the  Tigris,  but  the  rivers  Pishon  and  Gihon, 
which  were  made  to  compass  the  regions  of  the 
East  and  South,  correspond  to  no  actual  streams. 
In  the  writer's  imperfect  geography  the  names 
may  have  stood  for  remote  rivers  of  which  he  had 
only  a  vague  notion. 

The  mythic  significance  of  the  story  of  the  first 
human  couple  was  lost  for  ages  through  a  perver- 
sion of  its  meaning  to  serve  the  ends  of  a  dogma 
wrought  in  perfect  good  faith  by  the  early  teachers 
of  Christianity.  It  symbolizes  the  infancy  of  the 
race  as  a  state  of  childhood,  in  the  innocence  and 
delight  of  "  Eden,"  unconscious  of  either  good  or 
evil,  knowing  neither  wisdom  nor  folly,  caring  not 
for  its  nakedness.  But  it  cannot  remain  in  its 
"clouds  of  glory."  The  unhappy  time  comes  for 
the  stirring  of  the  insidious  desire  for  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil  and  the  impulse  to  liberty  of 
action.  That  suggestion  of  developing  human 
nature  is  symbolized  in  the  serpent  popularly 
credited  with  subtlety  and  wisdom  among  animals 
by  the  ancients. 


STORY  OF  THE   FIRST   FAMILY  57 

The  stirring  and  yearning  of  that  time  of  change 
comes  sooner  in  woman  than  in  man,  and  she  is 
apt  to  afford  the  incitement  and  stimulus  to  it  in 
him;  and,  when  it  comes,  the  state-  of  guileless 
innocence  is  ended.  With  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil  comes  the  consciousness  of  shame  in 
nakedness.  On  that  day,  too,  comes  death,  —  not 
literally,  but  in  apprehension  and  sense  of  cer- 
tainty, and  man  is  turned  out  of  his  garden  of 
delight  to  face  the  toil  of  life  and  woman  to  meet 
the  pain  and  sorrow  of  motherhood. 

But  why  was  the  eating  of  the  fruit  forbidden  ? 
Is  there  not  in  this  an  expression  of  sadness  that 
man  should  persist  in  knowing  and  doing  for  him- 
self, and  so  incur  the  penalties  of  achievement, 
and  of  a  divine  solicitude  that  he  might  remain 
innocent  and  happy  and  forever  a  child?  Once 
tasting  of  knowledge  and  coming  to  the  choice  of 
good  and  evil,  he  is  debarred  from  the  tree  that 
would  furnish  the  antidote  to  the  bitter  penalty. 
The  cherubim  and  a  flaming  sword  guard  the 
domain  of  innocent  childhood  which  he  has  left. 

In  this  symbolizing  of  a  universal  truth  in  human 
nature  and  human  life  there  is  no  suggestion  of 
individual  sin  or  even  of  general  sin.  There  is  no 
suggestion  of  a  spirit  of  evil  in  the  serpent,  but  his 
supposed  subtlety  as  a  beast  is  used  to  figure  the 


58  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

first  awakening  of  the  desire  for  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil;  and  the  antipathy  between  him  and  man 
is  attributed  to  a  primal  curse.  When  the  strangely 
man-like  God  walks  in  the  garden  the  shrinking 
from  his  presence  is  not  from  a  sense  of  guilt,  but 
of  nakedness.  The  sad  turn  has  come  in  human 
life  and  character  when  nudity  implies  shame. 
"  Who  told  thee  that  thou  wast  naked  ?  " 

The  doctrine  of  original  sin,  of  the  fall  from  a 
state  of  perfection,  and  the  loss  of  an  immortal 
condition,  was  never  drawn  from  this  myth  by  the 
Jews,  because  it  was  not  embodied  in  it  by  their 
genius.  It  was  not  in  keeping  with  their  ideas, 
and  the  story  was  really  an  allegory  of  the  growth 
and  not  the  fall  of  man, — an  expression  of  human 
development  and  not  of  relapse.  The  later  doc- 
trine was  laboriously  wrought  to  serve  as  the  basis 
of  another,  —  that  of  the  redemption  of  a  fallen 
race,  whose  fall  was  thus  accounted  for. 

The  Cain  and  Abel  myth  is  separate  from  that 
of  Adam  and  Eve,  and  had  in  part  the  purpose 
of  illustrating  the  tendency  of  the  human  race  to 
violence  and  bloodshed.  The  innocent  offspring  of 
the  first  couple  was  destroyed  and  the  depraved  and 
vengeful  was  sent  forth  into  the  land  of  wander- 
ing (Nod)  to  people  the  world  alone.  There  is  a 
curious  naivete  in  the  assumption  that  it  already 


STORY   OF  THE   FIRST   FAMILY  59 

contained  people  from  whom  he  needed  protection 
and  among  whom  he  must  have  found  the  wife 
that  bore  Enoch,  which  was  the  name  of  a  city- 
still  known  in  the  time  of  the  writer.  Incidently 
this  story  is  used  to  enforce  the  idea  that  the 
"  firstlings  of  the  flock  and  the  fat  thereof,"  rather 
than  the  "fruit  of  the  ground,"  were  the  proper 
and  accepted  "  offering  unto  the  Lord " ;  and  it 
contains  the  undeveloped  germ  of  the  primitive 
division  of  human  occupations  into  tilling  the  soil 
and  caring  for  flocks,  and  gives  a  sort  of  sanctity 
to  the  latter  as  having  been  that  of  the  forefathers 
of  Israel. 

The  obscure  traces  of  myth  in  the  brief  passage 
relating  to  Cain's  descendants  are  from  a  Phoeni- 
cian source,  and  bear  upon  the  supposed  origin 
of  pastoral  people  and  of  artificers  of  tools  and 
weapons,  and  of  musical  instruments,  the  sole 
products  of  primitive  mechanical  skill.  Tubal- 
Cain  and  Naamah  are  believed  to  have  had  a 
remote  relationship  to  Vulcan  and  Venus,  but  the 
material,  of  which  the  words  of  Lamech  to  his 
wives  appear  to  be  an  ancient  rhythmical  frag- 
ment, was  used  so  sparingly  as  to  leave  the  whole 
passage  in  obscurity.  The  statement  as  to  the 
birth  of  Seth  does  not  belong  to  the  Jehovist 
document,  but  was  drawn  by  the  compiler  from 


60  THE    MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

the  Elohist  to  supply  the  place  of  Abel,  and  to 
connect  this  with  the  passage  which  follows  in 
the  compilation.  The  assumed  etymology  of  the 
name  is  fanciful.  The  Jehovist  knew  no  Seth  and 
the  Elohist  no  Cain  and  Abel. 

[iU-iv] 

In  the  day  that  the  Lord  God  [Vahweh-Elohim] 
made  earth  and  heaven,  no  plant  of  the  field  was 
yet  in  the  earth,  and  no  herh  of  the  field  had 
yet  sprung  up,  for  the  Lord  God  had  not  caused 
it  to  rain  upon  the  earth,  and  there  was  not  a 
man  to  till  the  ground  ;  but  there  went  up  a  mist 
from  the  earth,  and  watered  the  whole  face  of  the 
ground.  And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the 
dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils 
the  breath  of  life  ;  and  man  became  a  living  soul. 

And  the  Lord  God  planted  a  garden  eastward,  in 
Eden ;  and  there  he  put  the  man  whom  he  had 
formed.  And  out  of  the  ground  made  the  Lord 
God  to  grow  every  tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight, 
and  good  for  food  ;  the  tree  of  life  also  in  the  midst 
of  the  garden,  and  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil. 

[And  a  river  goes  out  of  Eden  to  water  the  gar- 
den ;  and  from  thence  it  is  parted,  and  becomes  four 
heads.  The  name  of  the  first  is  Pishon  :  that  is  it 
which  compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Havilah,  where 
there  is  gold  ;  and  the  gold  of  that  land  is  good ; 
there  is  bdellium   and  the  onyx    stone.     And    the 


STORY   OF  THE   FIRST   FAMILY  6 1 

name  of  the  second  river  is  Gihon  ;  the  same  is  it 
that  compasseth  the  whole  land  of  Cush.  And  the 
name  of  the  third  river  is  Hiddekel ;  that  is  it  which 
goeth  in  front  of  Assyria.  And  the  fourth  river  is 
Euphrates.] 

And  the  Lord  God  took  the  man,  and  put  him 
into  the  garden  of  Eden  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it. 
And  the  Lord  God  commanded  the  man,  saying,  Of 
every  tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest  freely  eat ;  but 
of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  thou 
shalt  not  eat  of  it,  for  in  the  day  that  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die. 

And  the  Lord  God  said,  It  is  not  good  that  the 
man  should  be  alone  ;  I  will  make  him  an  help  meet 
for  him.  And  out  of  the  ground  the  Lord  God 
formed  every  beast  of  the  field,  and  every  fowl  of 
the  air ;  and  brought  them  unto  the  man  to  see  what 
he  would  call  them  ;  and  whatsoever  the  man  called 
every  living  creature,  that  was  the  name  thereof. 
And  the  man  gave  names  to  all  cattle,  and  to  the 
fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  every  beast  of  the  field  ;  but 
for  man  there  was  not  found  an  help  meet  for  him. 

And  the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall 
upon  the  man,  and  he  slept ;  and  he  took  one  of  his 
ribs,  and  closed  up  the  flesh  in  its  place;  and  of 
the  rib,  which  the  Lord  God  had  taken  from  the 
man,  made  he  a  woman,  and  brought  her  unto  the 
man.  And  the  man  said,  This  is  now  bone  of  my 
bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  ;  she  shall  be  called 
Woman,  because  she  was  taken  out  of  man.  There- 
fore shall  a  man  leave  his   father  and  his   mother, 


62  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife  ;  and  they  shall  be  one 
flesh.  And  they  were  both  naked,  the  man  and  his 
wife,  and  were  not  ashamed. 

Now  the  serpent  was  more  subtle  than  any  beast 
of  the  field  which  the  Lord  God  had  made.  And 
he  said  unto  the  woman,  Yea,  hath  God  said,  Ye 
shall  not  eat  of  any  tree  of  the  garden?  And  the 
woman  said  unto  the  serpent,  Of  the  fruit  of  the 
trees  of  the  garden  we  may  eat,  but  of  the  fruit  of 
the  tree  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  garden,  God 
hath  said,  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  it,  neither  shall  ye 
touch  it,  lest  ye  die.  And  the  serpent  said  unto  the 
woman,  Ye  shall  not  surely  die,  for  God  doth  know 
that  in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof,  then  your  eyes  shall 
be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  God,  knowing  good 
and  evil. 

And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good 
for  food,  and  that  it  was  a  delight  to  the  eyes,  and 
that  the  tree  was  to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise, 
she  took  of  the  fruit  thereof,  and  did  eat ;  and  she 
gave  also  unto  her  husband  with  her,  and  he  did  eat. 
And  the  eyes  of  them  both  were  opened,  and  they 
knew  that  they  were  naked ;  and  they  sewed  fig 
leaves  together,  and  made  themselves  girdles. 

And  they  heard  the  sound  of  the  Lord  God  walk- 
ing in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day,  and  the 
man  and  his  wife  hid  themselves  from  the  presence 
of  the  Lord  God  amongst  the  trees  of  the  garden. 
And  the  Lord  God  called  unto  the  man,  and  said 
unto  him,  Where  art  thou  ?  And  he  said,  I  heard 
thy  footsteps  in  the  garden,  and  I  was  afraid,  be- 


STORY   OF  THE   FIRST   FAMILY  63 

cause  I  was  naked  ;  and  I  hid  myself.  And  he  said, 
Who  told  thee  that  thou  wast  naked?  Hast  thou 
eaten  of  the  tree,  whereof  I  commanded  thee  that 
thou  shouldest  not  eat?  And  the  man  said,  The 
woman  whom  thou  gavest  to  be  with  me,  she  gave 
me  of  the  tree,  and  I  did  eat.  And  the  Lord  God 
said  unto  the  woman,  What  is  this  thou  hast  done? 
And  the  woman  said,  The  serpent  beguiled  me,  and 
I  did  eat. 

And  the  Lord  God  said  unto  the  serpent,  Because 
thou  hast  done  this,  cursed  art  thou  above  all  cattle, 
and  above  every  beast  of  the  field ;  upon  thy  belly 
shalt  thou  go,  and  dust  shalt  thou  eat  all  the  days  of 
thy  life  ;  and  I  will  put  enmity  between  thee  and 
the  woman,  and  between  thy  offspring  and  her  off- 
spring :  it  shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shalt  bruise 
his  heel.  Unto  the  woman  he  said,  I  will  greatly 
multiply  thy  pain  and  thy  conception ;  in  sorrow 
thou  shalt  bring  forth  children ;  and  thy  desire 
shall  be  to  thy  husband,  and  he  shall  rule  over  thee. 

And  unto  Adam  he  said,  Because  thou  hast  heark- 
ened unto  the  voice  of  thy  wife,  and  hast  eaten  of 
the  tree,  of  which  I  commanded  thee,  saying,  Thou 
shalt  not  eat  of  it :  cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy 
sake ;  in  toil  shalt  thou  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy 
life ;  thorns  also  and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to 
thee ;  and  thou  shalt  eat  the  herb  of  the  field ;  in 
the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread,  till  thou 
return  unto  the  ground ;  for  out  of  it  wast  thou 
taken :  for  dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt 
thou  return.     [And  the  man  called  his  wife's  name 


64  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Eve  ;  because  she  was  the  mother  of  all  living.] 
And  the  Lord  God  made  for  Adam  and  for  his  wife 
coats  of  skins,  and  clothed  them. 

And  the  Lord  God  said,  Behold,  the  man  is  be- 
come as  one  of  us,  to  know  good  and  evil ;  and  now, 
lest  he  put  forth  his  hand,  and  take  also  of  the  tree 
of  life,  and  eat,  and  live  for  ever  — 

Therefore  the  Lord  God  sent  him  forth  from  the 
garden  of  Eden,  to  till  the  ground  from  whence 
he  was  taken.  So  he  drove  out  the  man ;  and  he 
placed  at  the  east  of  the  garden  of  Eden  the  Cheru- 
bim, and  the  flame  of  a  sword  which  turned  every 
way,  to  keep  the  way  of  the  tree  of  life. 

And  the  man  knew  Eve  his  wife ;  and  she  con- 
ceived, and  bare  Cain,  and  said,  I  have  gotten  a 
man  with  the  help  of  the  Lord  [Yahweh].  And 
again  she  bare  his  brother  Abel.  And  Abel  was  a 
keeper  of  sheep,  but  Cain  was  a  tiller  of  the  ground. 
And  in  process  of  time  it  came  to  pass,  that  Cain 
brought  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground  an  offering  unto 
the  Lord.  And  Abel,  he  also  brought  of  the  first- 
lings of  his  flock  and  of  the  fat  thereof.  And  the 
Lord  had  respect  unto  Abel  and  to  his  offering ; 
but  unto  Cain  and  to  his  offering  he  had  not  re- 
spect. And  Cain  was  very  wroth,  and  his  counte- 
nance fell. 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  Cain,  Why  art  thou 
wroth?  and  why  is  thy  countenance  fallen?  If 
thou  doest  well,  shalt  thou  not  be  accepted?  and 
if   thou    doest    not   well?  —  Sin    coucheth    at    the 


STORY   OF  THE   FIRST   FAMILY  65 

door,  and  lieth  in  wait  for  thee,  but  thou  shouldest 
rule  over  it.    And  Cain  said  unto  Abel  his  brother  — 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  they  were  in  the  field, 
that  Cain  rose  up  against  Abel  his  brother,  and  slew 
him.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Cain,  Where  is  Abel 
thy  brother  ?  And  he  said,  I  know  not ;  am  I  my 
brother's  keeper?  And  he  said,  What  hast  thou 
done  ?  The  voice  of  thy  brother's  blood  crieth  unto 
me  from  the  ground.  And  now  cursed  art  thou 
from  the  ground,  which  hath  opened  her  mouth  to 
receive  thy  brother's  blood  from  thy  hand ;  when 
thou  tillest  the  ground,  it  shall  not  henceforth  yield 
unto  thee  her  strength ;  a  fugitive  and  a  wanderer 
shalt  thou  be  in  the  earth. 

And  Cain  said  unto  the  Lord,  My  punishment  is 
greater  than  I  can  bear.  Behold,  thou  hast  driven 
me  out  this  day  from  the  face  of  the  ground ;  and 
from  thy  face  shall  I  be  hid ;  and  I  shall  be  a  fugi- 
tive and  a  wanderer  in  the  earth  ;  and  it  shall  come 
to  pass,  that  whosoever  findeth  me  shall  slay  me. 
And  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  Therefore  whosoever 
slayeth  Cain,  vengeance  shall  be  taken  on  him  sev- 
enfold. And  the  Lord  appointed  a  sign  for  Cain, 
lest  any  finding  him  should  smite  him.  And  Cain 
went  out  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  dwelt 
in  the  land  of  Nod  [wandering]  in  front  of  Eden. 

And  Cain  knew  his  wife  ;  and  she  conceived,  and 
bare  Enoch  ;  and  he  builded  a  city,  and  called  the 
name  of  the  city,  after  the  name  of  his  son,  Enoch. 
And  unto  Enoch  was  born   Irad,  and  Irad  begat 


66  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Mehujacl,   and    Mehujael    begat    Methushael,    and 
Methushael  begat  Lamech. 

And  Lamech  took  unto  him  two  wives;  the  name 
of  the  one  was  Adah,  and  the  name  of  the  other 
Zillah.  And  Adah  bare  Jabal :  he  was  the  father  of 
such  as  dwell  in  tents  and  have  cattle.  And  his 
brother's  name  was  Jubal :  he  was  the  father  of  all 
such  as  handle  the  harp  and  pipe.  And  Zillah,  she 
also  bare  Tubal-cain,  the  forger  of  every  cutting 
instrument  of  brass  and  iron ;  and  the  sister  of 
Tubal-cain  was  Naamah.  And  Lamech  said  unto 
his  wives  : 

Adah  and  Zillah,  hear  my  voice  ; 

Ye  wives  of  Lamech,  hearken  unto  my  speech  : 

For  I  have  slain  a  man  for  wounding  me, 

And  a  young  man  for  bruising  me  : 

If  Cain  shall  be  avenged  sevenfold, 

Truly  Lamech  seventy  and  sevenfold. 

[And  Adam  knew  his  wife  again  ;  and  she  bare 
a  son,  and  called  his  name  Seth  :  For,  said  she, 
God  hath  appointed  me  another  offspring  instead  of 
Abel ;  for  Cain  slew  him.  And  to  Seth,  to  him  also 
there  was  born  a  son  ;  and  he  called  his  name 
Enosh.  Then  began  men  to  call  upon  the  name 
of  the  Lord.] 


Ill 

THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  GENERATIONS 

The  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis  is  from  the  Elohist 
document  and  its  close  connection  with  the  pas- 
sage from  the  same  source  with  which  the  book 
opens  is  quite  obvious.  While  the  reference  to 
the  creation  of  man,  as  male  and  female,  in 
the  plural,  is  repeated,  the  personification  of  the 
father  of  mankind  in  Adam  is  made  definite  in 
accordance  with  a  plan  which  pervades  the  whole 
book.  The  Elohist  was  much  given  to  genealo- 
gies personifying  places  and  peoples.  According 
to  him  there  were  ten  antediluvian  generations  of 
long  life.  A  distinct  relation  has  been  traced  be- 
tween the  names  of  the  heads  of  these  generations 
with  their  durations,  and  those  of  the  antediluvian 
dynasties  of  Chaldean  legend,  but  it  is  no  part  of 
the  present  purpose  to  follow  this  out.  The  cor- 
respondence of  the  years  of  Enoch's  age,  after 
which  he  "walked  with  God"  and  "was  not," 
with  the  number  of  days  in  the  year  is  noticeable, 
and  suggests  an  astronomical  myth,  of  which  the 
Chaldeans  had  many. 

67 


68  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Lamech,  the  father  of  Noah,  appears  in  the 
seventh  generation  after  Seth,  while  the  Jehovist 
made  him  the  descendant  of  Cain  in  the  fifth 
generation.  The  intermediate  names  in  the  two 
genealogies  vary  in  their  form  and  order,  but 
evidently  had  a  common  source.  The  northern 
writer  was  less  familiar  with  geographical  and 
legendary  appellations  than  the  author  of  the 
Elohist  document,  and  there  was  no  system  or 
direct  purpose  in  his  slight  use  of  them. 

[V] 

This  is  the  book  of  the  generations  of  Adam. 
In  the  day  that  God  [Elohim]  created  man,  in  the 
likeness  of  God  made  he  him  ;  male  and  female 
created  he  them ;  and  blessed  them,  and  called 
their  name  Adam  [man],  in  the  day  when  they 
were  created.  And  Adam  lived  an  hundred  and 
thirty  years,  and  begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness, 
after  his  image,  and  called  his  name  Seth ;  and 
the  days  of  Adam  after  he  begat  Seth  were  eight 
hundred  years,  and  he  begat  sons  and  daughters. 
And  all  the  days  that  Adam  lived  were  nine  hun- 
dred and  thirty  years,  and  he  died. 

And  Seth  lived  an  hundred  and  five  years,  and 
begat  Enosh  ;  and  Seth  lived  after  he  begat  Enosh 
eight  hundred  and  seven  years,  and  begat  sons  and 
daughters;  and  all  the  days  of  Seth  were  nine  hun- 
dred and  twelve  years,  and  he  died. 


ANTEDILUVIAN   GENERATIONS  69 

And  Enosh  lived  ninety  years,  and  begat  Kenan, 
and  Enosh  lived  after  he  begat  Kenan  eight  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  years,  and  begat  sons  and  daugh- 
ters ;  and  all  the  days  of  Enosh  were  nine  hundred 
and  five  years,  and  he  died. 

And  Kenan  lived  seventy  years,  and  begat  Ma- 
halalel ;  and  Kenan  lived  after  he  begat  Mahalalel 
eight  hundred  and  forty  years,  and  begat  sons  and 
daughters ;  and  all  the  days  of  Kenan  were  nine 
hundred  and  ten  years,  and  he  died. 

And  Mahalalel  lived  sixty  and  five  years,  and 
begat  Jared ;  and  Mahalalel  lived  after  he  begat 
Jared  eight  hundred  and  thirty  years,  and  begat 
sons  and  daughters  ;  and  all  the  days  of  Mahalalel 
were  eight  hundred  ninety  and  five  years,  and  he 
died. 

And  Jared  lived  an  hundred  sixty  and  two  years, 
and  begat  Enoch  ;  and  Jared  lived  after  he  begat 
Enoch  eight  hundred  years,  and  begat  sons  and 
daughters ;  and  all  the  days  of  Jared  were  nine 
hundred  sixty  and  two  years,  and  he  died. 

And  Enoch  lived  sixty  and  five  years,  and  begat 
Methuselah ;  and  Enoch  walked  with  God  after  he 
begat  Methuselah  three  hundred  years,  and  begat 
sons  and  daughters  ;  and  all  the  days  of  Enoch  were 
three  hundred  sixty  and  five  years,  and  Enoch 
walked  with  God  and  he  was  not,  for  God  took 
him. 

And  Methuselah  lived  an  hundred  eighty  and 
seven  years,  and  begat  Lamech ;  and  Methuselah 
lived  after  he  begat  Lamech  seven  hundred  eighty 


JO  THE   MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

and  two  years,  and  begat  sons  and  daughters  ;  and 
all  the  days  of  Methuselah  were  nine  hundred  sixty 
and  nine  years,  and  he  died. 

And  Lamech  lived  an  hundred  eighty  and  two 
years,  and  begat  a  son,  and  he  called  his  name 
Noah  [saying,  This  same  shall  comfort  us  for  our 
work  and  for  the  toil  of  our  hands,  because  of  the 
ground  which  the  Lord  hath  cursed].  And  Lamech 
lived  after  he  begat  Noah  five  hundred  ninety  and 
five  years,  and  begat  sons  and  daughters ;  and  all 
the  days  of  Lamech  were  seven  hundred  seventy 
and  seven  years,  and  he  died. 

And  Noah  was  five  hundred  years  old ;  and  Noah 
begat  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth. 


IV 


THE    MIXED    ACCOUNT    OF    THE    FLOOD 

In  the  old  days  when  the  memories  of  mankind 
first  began  to  take  form  in  myths  and  legends, 
which  were  ultimately  preserved  in  writing,  there 
seems  to  have  been  in  the  East  a  wide-spread 
tradition  of  a  great  cataclysm  of  nature,  accom- 
panied by  an  overwhelming  flood  of  waters.  It 
is  not  unlikely  that  this  had  come  down  from 
actual  occurrences  in  the  valleys  of  the  great 
rivers,  and  on  the  shores  of  the  seas  some  time  in 
the  early  history  of  the  human  race.  It  is  no 
more  than  natural  if  the  inhabitants  of  regions  in 
which  this  tradition  prevailed,  with  their  limited 
knowledge  of  the  world's  area,  vastly  exaggerated 
the  extent  of  the  destruction  attending  such  catas- 
trophes, and  nothing  could  be  more  useful  to  the 
makers  of  myths  than  the  terror  they  inspired. 

The  ancient  Hebrews  had  no  tradition  of  their 
own  of  this  kind,  but  the  Chaldeans  of  the  Eu- 
phrates valley  had  one  of  the  most  highly  devel- 
oped of  the  diluvian  myths,  and  it  has  been 
sufficiently  traced   to    put  beyond    doubt   that   it 

7i 


72  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

furnished  the  material  of  the  story  of  "  Noah's 
Flood."  The  compiler  adopted  the  Elohist  ver- 
sion of  this  story,  but  interpolated  in  it  some 
fragments  and  phrases  from  the  other,  which  he 
seemed  to  regard  as  necessary  to  complete  it,  but 
which  really  confused  it.  If  the  passage  given 
below,  which  constitutes  the  four  chapters,  vi.-ix., 
of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  is  read  without  the  frag- 
ments that  are  bracketed  or  italicized,  it  will  be 
found  to  be  complete  and  harmonious  in  itself. 
It  represents  Noah  as  taking  the  animals  into  the 
ark  two  by  two,  male  and  female,  for  preserva- 
tion, with  no  distinction  of  clean  and  unclean. 

The  Elohist,  in  his  account  of  the  creation,  rep- 
resented God  as  giving  to  man  the  "  herb  yielding 
seed,"  and  the  fruit  of  every  tree  to  be  "for  food," 
and  the  "green  herb"  for  food  for  animals.  In 
preparing  the  ark  for  its  perilous  voyage  Noah  is 
directed  to  take  two  of  every  sort  of  living  things 
"to  keep  them  alive,"  and  to  gather  "of  all  food 
that  is  eaten"  for  himself  and  for  them.  The 
same  writer  describes  God  as  blessing  Noah  after 
the  flood,  and  delivering  into  his  hand  the  beast 
of  the  earth,  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  the  fishes  of 
the  sea,  and  giving  him  "every  moving  thing  that 
liveth"  for  food.  This  appears  with  him  to  be 
the  origin    of    animal  food  for  man.     He   repre- 


THE  MIXED  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  FLOOD    J I 

sented  the  deluge  of  waters  as  the  result  of  a 
general  cataclysm,  a  breaking  up  of  the  fountains 
of  the  great  deep,  and  an  opening  of  the  windows 
of  heaven,  and  he  allows  a  hundred. and  fifty  days 
for  the  rise  of  the  overwhelming  flood,  and  a  like 
period  for  its  subsidence.  He  leaves  Noah  and 
his  family  in  the  ark  more  than  a  year.  In  the 
Chaldean  legend  there  appears  to  have  been  an 
association  of  this  period  with  an  astronomical 
myth. 

The  other  account,  doubtless  that  of  the  Jeho- 
vist,  represents  Noah  as  taking  seven  pairs  of 
"  clean  beasts  "  into  the  ark,  the  overplus  beyond 
what  was  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  species 
being  presumably  for  food.  The  inadequacy  of 
accommodations  in  the  ark,  as  it  is  described,  for 
what  it  was  to  contain,  is  a  detail  of  no  account, 
if  we  recognize  the  mythical  character  of  the 
whole  story.  Such  incongruities  are  common  in 
antique  fable.  The  writer,  who  had  conceived  of 
the  earth  at  the  creation  as  a  barren  waste  of  land 
waiting  for  moisture,  instead  of  a  chaos  of  waters 
from  which  the  land  was  to  emerge,  conceived  of 
the  flood  as  the  result  of  a  steady  down-pour  of 
rain.  According  to  him  Noah  entered  the  ark 
and  waited  seven  days,  and  then  the  flood  of 
waters  came  in  a  rainfall  of  forty  days  and  forty 


74  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

nights,  when  it  subsided,  and  the  ark  rested  "upon 
the  mountains  of  Ararat."  To  him  belong  the 
incidents  of  opening  the  window  and  sending  out 
a  raven  and  a  dove,  and  finally  looking  forth  and 
finding  the  face  of  the  ground  dried.  The  time 
of  waiting  on  the  mountain  top  was  made  up  of 
three  periods  of  seven  days,  and  seventy  days 
covered  the  whole  time  of  the  stay  in  the  ark. 

The  difference  in  the  two  accounts  of  the 
flood,  which  the  compiler  mixed  up,  is  plainly 
discernible  when  we  separate  the  broken  frag- 
ments of  the  one  from  the  continuous  fabric  of 
the  other.  The  passages  and  phrases  which  do 
not  belong  to  the  Elohist  version  are  printed 
below  in  italics,  those  which  were  wrought  into 
it  as  a  part  of  the  same  narrative  being  put  in 
brackets.  At  the  beginning  and  at  the  end  of 
the  whole  story  are  two  separate  interpolations 
which  are  bracketed  and  left  in  Roman  type. 
The  first  is  a  curious  bit  of  antique  material 
with  no  direct  relation  to  the  context  and  is  in- 
consistent with  the  post-diluvian  genealogies  in 
the  decree  of  shortened  life  for  man.  The  last 
shows  Noah  in  a  wholly  different  aspect  from 
that  of  the  story  of  the  flood,  and  is  apparently 
a  scrap  from  the  old  patriarchal  legends,  intro- 
duced for  the  sake  of    the  curse    upon   the  peo- 


THE  MIXED  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  FLOOD     75 

pie  of  Canaan,  who  were  to  be  made  subject  to 
the  offspring  of  Shem,  from  whom  the  Israelites 
were  descended.  It  incidentally  reflects  a  gross 
and  sensual  character  imputed  to.  the  Southern 
races,  or  descendants  of  Ham,  and  rebukes  a 
special  form  of  disrespect  for  fathers.  The 
statement  of  Noah's  age  which  follows  connects 
with  the  genealogy  of  Chapter  v.,  and  seems  to 
have  been  broken  off  from  it  by  the  insertion 
of  the  story  of  the  flood  after  the  preliminary 
statement  of  his  age  when  he  "begat  Shem, 
Ham  and  Japheth." 

[VI-IX] 

[And  it  came  to  pass,  when  men  began  to  multiply 
on  the  face  of  the  ground,  and  daughters  were  born 
unto  them,  that  the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters 
of  men  that  they  were  fair;  and  they  took  them 
wives  of  all  that  they  chose.  And  the  Lord  said, 
My  spirit  shall  not  strive  with  man  for  ever,  for  that 
he  also  is  flesh ;  yet  shall  his  days  be  an  hundred 
and  twenty  years.  The  Nephilim  (giants)  were  in 
the  earth  in  those  days,  and  also  after  that,  when  the 
sons  of  God  came  in  unto  the  daughters  of  men,  and 
they  bare  children  to  them :  the  same  were  the 
mighty  men  which  were  of  old,  the  men  of  renown.] 

And  the  Lord  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man 
was  great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every  imagination 
of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil  continually. 


J6  THE    MYTHS  OF  ISRAEL 

And  it  repented  the  Lord  that  he  had  made  man  on 
the  earth,  and  it  grieved  him  at  his  heart.  And  the 
Lord  said,  I  will  destroy  man  whom  L  have  created 
from  the  face  of  the  ground;  both  man,  a?id  beast, 
and  creeping  thing,  and  fowl  of  the  air;  for  it  repent- 
eth  me  that  L  have  made  them.  But  Noah  found 
grace  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord. 

These  are  the  generations  of  Noah.  Noah  was  a 
righteous  man,  and  blameless  in  his  generations. 
Noah  walked  with  God.  And  Noah  begat  three  sons, 
Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth.  And  the  earth  was  cor- 
rupt before  God,  and  the  earth  was  filled  with  vio- 
lence. And  God  saw  the  earth,  and,  behold,  it  was 
corrupt ;  for  all  flesh  had  corrupted  his  way  upon 
the  earth. 

And  God  said  unto  Noah,  The  end  of  all  flesh  is 
come  before  me ;  for  the  earth  is  filled  with  violence 
through  them  ;  and,  behold,  I  will  destroy  them  with 
the  earth.  Make  thee  an  ark  of  gopher  wood ; 
rooms  shalt  thou  make  in  the  ark,  and  shalt  pitch 
it  within  and  without  with  pitch.  And  this  is  how 
thou  shalt  make  it :  the  length  of  the  ark  three  hun- 
dred cubits,  the  breadth  of  it  fifty  cubits,  and  the 
height  of  it  thirty  cubits.  A  light  shalt  thou  make 
to  the  ark,  and  to  a  cubit  shalt  thou  finish  it  upward  ; 
and  the  door  of  the  ark  shalt  thou  set  in  the  side 
thereof;  with  lower,  second,  and  third  stories  shalt 
thou  make  it. 

And  I,  behold,  I  do  bring  the  flood  of  waters 
upon  the  earth,  to  destroy  all  flesh,  wherein  is  the 
breath  of  life,  from  under  heaven ;  every  thing  that 


THE   MIXED   ACCOUNT   OF  THE   FLOOD  y>J 

is  in  the  earth  shall  die.  But  I  will  establish  my 
covenant  with  thee ;  and  thou  shalt  come  into  the 
ark,  thou,  and  thy  sons,  and  thy  wife,  and  thy  sons' 
wives  with  thee.  And  of  every  living  thing  of  all 
flesh,  two  of  every  sort  shalt  thou  bring  into  the 
ark,  to  keep  them  alive  with  thee ;  they  shall  be 
male  and  female.  Of  the  fowl  after  their  kind,  and 
of  the  cattle  after  their  kind,  of  every  creeping 
thing  of  the  ground  after  its  kind,  two  of  every  sort 
shall  come  unto  thee,  to  keep  them  alive.  And 
take  thou  unto  thee  of  all  food  that  is  eaten,  and 
gather  it  to  thee ;  and  it  shall  be  for  food  for  thee, 
and  for  them.  Thus  did  Noah ;  according  to  all 
that  God  commanded  him,  so  did  he. 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  Noah,  Come  thou  and 
all  thy  house  into  the  ark ;  for  thee  have  I  seen 
righteous  before  me  in  this  generation.  Of  every 
clean  beast  thou  shalt  take  to  thee  seven  and  seven, 
the  male  and  his  female  ;  and  of  the  beasts  that  are 
not  clean  two,  the  male  and  his  female  ;  of  the  fowl 
also  of  the  air,  seven  and  seven,  male  and  female,  to 
keep  the  ?-ace  alive  upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth.  For 
yet  seven  days,  and  I  will  cause  it  to  rain  upon  the 
earth  forty  days  and  forty  nights;  and  every  living 
thing  that  I  have  made  will  I  destroy  from  off  the 
face  of  the  ground.  And  Noah  did  according  unto 
all  that  the  Lord  commanded  him. 

And  Noah  was  six  hundred  years  old  when  the 
flood  of  waters  was  upon  the  earth.  And  Noah 
went  in,  and  his  sons,  and  his  wife,  and  his  sons' 
wives  with  him,  into  the  ark,  because  of  the  waters 


78  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

of  the  flood.  Of  [clean]  beasts,  [and  of  beasts  that 
are  not  clean,']  and  of  fowls,  and  of  every  thing  that 
creepeth  upon  the  ground,  there  went  in  two  and 
two  unto  Noah  into  the  ark,  male  and  female,  as 
God  commanded  Noah.  [Audit  came  to  pass  after 
the  seven  days,  that  the  waters  of  the  flood  zvere 
upon  the  earth. ,] 

In  the  six  hundredth  year  of  Noah's  life,  in 
the  second  month,  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  the 
month,  on  the  same  day  were  all  the  fountains  of 
the  great  deep  broken  up,  and  the  windows  of 
heaven  were  opened.  [And  the  rain  was  upon  the 
earth  forty  days  and  forty  nights.']  In  the  selfsame 
day  entered  Noah,  and  Shem,  and  Ham,  and 
Japheth,  the  sons  of  Noah,  and  Noah's  wife,  and 
the  three  wives  of  his  sons  with  them,  into  the  ark ; 
they,  and  every  beast  after  its  kind,  and  all  the 
cattle  after  their  kind,  and  every  creeping  thing 
that  creepeth  upon  the  earth  after  its  kind,  and 
every  fowl  after  its  kind,  every  bird  of  every  sort. 
And  they  went  in  unto  Noah  into  the  ark,  two  and 
two  of  all  flesh  wherein  is  the  breath  of  life.  And 
they  that  went  in,  went  in  male  and  female  of  all 
flesh,  as  God  commanded  him  ;  [and  the  Lord  shut 
him  in.  And  the  flood  was  forty  days  upon  the 
earth ;  and  the  "waters  increased,  and  bare  up  the 
ark,  and  it  was  lift  up  above  the  eart/i.] 

And  the  waters  prevailed,  and  increased  greatly 
upon  the  earth  ;  and  the  ark  went  upon  the  face  of 
the  waters.  And  the  waters  prevailed  exceedingly 
upon  the  earth ;    and  all   the    high   mountains  that 


THE  MIXED  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  FLOOD     79 

were  under  the  whole  heaven  were  covered.  Fif- 
teen cubits  upward  did  the  waters  prevail ;  and  the 
mountains  were  covered.  And  all  flesh  died  that 
moved  upon  the  earth,  both  fowl,  and  cattle,  and 
beast,  and  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon 
the  earth,  and  every  man  :  [all  in  whose  nostrils  was 
the  breath  of  the  spirit  of  life,  of  all  that  was  in  the 
dry  land,  died.  And  every  living  thing  was  de- 
stroyed which  was  upon  the  face  of  the  ground,  both 
man,  and  cattle,  and  creeping  thing,  and  fowl  of  the 
heaven  ;  and  they  were  destroyed  from  the  earth  ; 
and  Noah  only  was  left,  and  they  that  were  with 
him  in  the  ark.~\  And  the  waters  prevailed  upon  the 
earth  an  hundred  and  fifty  days. 

And  God  remembered  Noah,  and  every  living 
thing,  and  all  the  cattle  that  were  with  him  in  the 
ark;  and  God  made  a  wind  to  pass  over  the  earth, 
and  the  waters  assuaged ;  the  fountains  also  of  the 
deep  and  the  windows  of  heaven  were  stopped ; 
\_and  the  rain  from  heaven  was  restrained ;  and  the 
waters  returned  from  off  the  earth  continually  .•]  and 
after  the  end  of  an  hundred  and  fifty  days  the  waters 
decreased  [and  the  ark  rested]  in  the  seventh 
month,  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  month 
[upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat.']  And  the  waters 
decreased  continually  until  the  tenth  month.  In 
the  tenth  month,  on  the  first  day  of  the  month, 
were  the  tops  of  the  mountains  seen. 

{And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  forty  days, 
that  Noah  opened  the  windotv  of  the  ark  which  he 
had  made;  and  he  sent  forth  a  raven,  and  it  went 


SO  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

forth  to  and  fro,  until  the  waters  were  dried  up  from 
off  the  earth.  And  he  sent  forth  a  dove  from  him,  to 
see  if  the  waters  were  aim  ted  from  off  the  face  of  the 
ground;  but  the  dove  found  no  rest  for  the  sole  of 
her  foot,  and  she  returned  unto  him  to  the  ai'k,for 
the  waters  were  on  the  face  of  the  whole  earth  ;  and 
he  put  forth  his  hand,  and  took  her,  and  brought  her 
in  unto  him  into  the  ark.  And  he  stayed  yet  other 
seven  days ;  and  again  he  sent  forth  the  dove  out  of 
the  ark ;  and  the  dove  came  in  to  him  at  eventide  ; 
and,  lo,  in  her  mouth  an  olive  leaf  pluekt  off :  so 
Noah  knew  that  the  waters  were  abated  from  off  the 
earth.  And  he  stayed  yet  other  seven  days ;  and 
sent  forth  the  dove  ;  and  she  returned  not  again  unto 
him  any  more.] 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  six  hundred  and  first 
year,  in  the  first  month,  the  first  day  of  the  month, 
the  waters  were  dried  up  from  off  the  earth  ;  \_and 
Noah  removed  the  covering  of  the  ark,  and  looked, 
and,  behold,  the  face  of  the  ground  was  dried.'] 
And  in  the  second  month,  on  the  seven  and  twen- 
tieth day  of  the  month,  was  the  earth  dry. 

And  God  spake  unto  Noah,  saying,  Go  forth  of 
the  ark,  thou,  and  thy  wife,  and  thy  sons,  and  thy 
sons'  wives  with  thee.  Bring  forth  with  thee  every 
living  thing  that  is  with  thee  of  all  flesh,  both  fowl, 
and  cattle,  and  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth 
upon  the  earth  ;  that  they  may  breed  abundantly  in 
the  earth,  and  be  fruitful,  and  multiply  upon  the 
earth.  And  Noah  went  forth,  and  his  sons,  and  his 
wife,  and   his  sons'  wives  with  him.      Every  beast, 


THE  MIXED  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  FLOOD    8 1 

every  creeping  thing,  and  every  fowl,  whatsoever 
moveth  upon  the  earth,  after  their  families,  went 
forth  out  of  the  ark. 

And  Noah  bit ikied  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  ;  and 
took  of  every  clean  beast,  and  of  every  clean  fowl, 
and  offered  burnt  offerings  on  the  altar.  And  the 
LORD  smelted  the  sweet  savour  ;  and  the  Lord  said 
in  his  heart,  I  will  not  again  curse  the  ground  any 
more  for  man's  sake,  for  that  the  imagination  of 
man's  heart  is  evil  from  his  youth  ;  neither  will  I 
again  smite  any  more  every  thing  living,  as  I  have 
done.  While  the  earth  remaineth,  seedtime  and 
harvest,  and  cold  and  heat,  and  summer  and  winter, 
and  day  and  night  shall  not  cease. 

And  God  blessed  Noah  and  his  sons,  and  said 
unto  them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish 
the  earth.  And  the  fear  of  you  and  the  dread  of 
you  shall  be  upon  every  beast  of  the  earth,  and 
upon  every  fowl  of  the  air ;  with  all  wherewith  the 
ground  teemeth,  and  all  the  fishes  of  the  sea,  into 
your  hand  are  they  delivered.  Every  moving  thing 
that  liveth  shall  be  food  for  you ;  as  the  green  herb 
have  I  given  you  all.  But  flesh  with  the  life  thereof, 
which  is  the  blood  thereof,  shall  ye  not  eat.  And 
surely  your  blood,  the  blood  of  your  lives,  will  I 
avenge  ;  from  every  beast  will  I  exact  retribution 
for  it ;  and  at  the  hand  of  man,  even  at  the  hand 
of  every  man's  brother,  will  I  exact  retribution  for 
the  life  of  man.  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed,  for  in  the  image  of 
God  made  he  man.     And  you,  be  ye  fruitful,  and 


82  THE   MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

multiply  j  bring  forth  abundantly  in  the  earth,  and 
multiply  therein. 

And  (iod  spake  unto  Noah,  and  to  his  sons  with 
him,  saying,  And  I.  behold,  I  establish  my  covenant 
with  you,  and  with  your  posterity  after  you  ;  and 
with  every  living  creature  that  is  with  you,  the  fowl, 
the  cattle,  and  every  beast  of  the  earth  with  you  ; 
of  all  that  go  out  of  the  ark,  even  every  beast  of 
the  earth.  And  I  will  establish  my  covenant  with 
you  ;  neither  shall  all  flesh  be  cut  off  any  more  by 
the  waters  of  the  flood ;  neither  shall  there  any 
more  be  a  flood  to  destroy  the  earth. 

And  God  said,  This  is  the  token  of  the  covenant 
which  I  make  between  me  and  you  and  every  living 
creature  that  is  with  you,  for  perpetual  generations  : 
I  do  set  my  bow  in  the  cloud,  and  it  shall  be  for  a 
token  of  a  covenant  between  me  and  the  earth. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  I  bring  a  cloud 
over  the  earth,  that  the  bow  shall  be  seen  in  the 
cloud,  and  I  will  remember  my  covenant,  which  is 
between  me  and  you  and  every  living  creature  of  all 
flesh ;  and  the  waters  shall  no  more  become  a  flood 
to  destroy  all  flesh.  And  the  bow  shall  be  in  the 
cloud  ;  and  I  will  look  upon  it,  that  I  may  remem- 
ber the  everlasting  covenant  between  God  and  every 
living  creature  of  all  flesh  that  is  upon  the  earth. 
And  God  said  unto  Noah,  This  is  the  token  of  the 
covenant  which  I  have  established  between  me  and 
all  flesh  that  is  upon  the  earth. 

And  the  sons  of  Noah,  thai  went  forth  of  the  ark, 
were  Shan,  and  Ham,  and  Japheth  :  and  Ham  is 


THE    MIXED    ACCOUNT   OF   THE   FLOOD  83 

the  father  of  Canaan.  These  three  were  the  sons  of 
Noah  :  and  of  these  was  the  whole  earth  overspread. 
[And  Noah  began  to  be  an  husbandman,  and 
planted  a  vineyard  ;  and  he  drank  of  the  wine,  and 
was  drunken,  and  he  was  uncovered  within  his  tent. 
And  Ham,  the  father  of  Canaan,  saw  the  nakedness 
of  his  father,  and  told  his  two  brethren  without. 
And  Shem  and  Japheth  took  a  garment,  and  laid  it 
upon  both  their  shoulders,  and  went  backward,  and 
covered  the  nakedness  of  their  father ;  and  their 
faces  were  backward,  and  they  saw  not  their  father's 
nakedness.  And  Noah  awoke  from  his  wine,  and 
knew  what  his  youngest  son  had  done  unto  him. 
And  he  said, 

Cursed  be  Canaan  ; 

A    servant    of    servants   shall   he  be  unto  his 
brethren. 

And  he  said, 

Blessed  be  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Shem ; 

And  let  Canaan  be  his  servant. 

God  enlarge  Japheth, 

And  let  him  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem  ; 

And  let  Canaan  be  his  servant.] 

And  Noah  lived  after  the  flood  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years.  And  all  the  days  of  Noah  were 
nine  hundred  and  fifty  years  :   and  he  died. 


V 

POST-DILUVIAN    GENERATIONS 

Chapter  x.  of  the  Book  of  Genesis  is  purely  eth- 
nographical and  was  intended  to  account  for  the 
distribution  of  population  within  the  range  of  the 
writer's  geography.  Its  basis  was  no  doubt  in 
the  Elohist  document,  as  a  genealogy  of  the  de- 
scendants of  Noah,  but  it  appears  to  have  been 
expanded  by  the  compiler  to  conform  to  a  some- 
what more  definite  knowledge  in  his  day.  The 
names  were  partly  those  of  places,  some  cities  and 
some  broader  territorial  designations,  and  partly 
those  of  tribes  or  peoples. 

Japheth,  which  implied  vast  extent,  compre- 
hended the  Northern  and  Western  peoples,  of  which 
comparatively  little  was  then  known.  Magog  was 
a  term  applied  to  the  distant  Scythians,  and  Javan 
included  the  Ionians.  Dodanim  seems  to  be  iden- 
tical with  the  Rodanim  of  the  Book  of  Chronicles, 
and  is  supposed  to  mean  the  Rhodians.  Ham, 
which  implied  a  hot  climate,  comprehended  the 
people  of  the  South  and  the  distant  East,  in- 
cluding Egypt  under  the  name  of  Mizraim.  The 
Canaanite  tribes  did  not    properly  belong  to  this 

84 


POST-DILUVIAN   GENERATIONS  85 

division,  but  to  the  Semitic  race.  They  were 
remotely  akin  to  the  Israelites,  but  their  subjec- 
tion and  the  hereditary  antipathy  engendered  by 
it  led  to  placing  them  among  the  progeny  of 
Ham  and  putting  a  special  opprobrium  upon  their 
name.  The  reference  to  Nimrod  and  the  founding 
of  Nineveh  was  an  interpolation  derived  from  the 
prolific  source  of  Chaldean  myth,  in  which  the 
mighty  hunter  was  an  astronomical  figure  cor- 
responding to  Orion.  The  phrase  "  before  the 
Lord"  is  simply  an  intensive  or  superlative  form 
of  expression.  Zidon  is  mentioned  both  as 
the  son  of  Canaan  and  as  a  place  on  "  the  border 
of  the  Canaanite  " ;  and  the  personal  names  for 
the  tribes  of  Canaan  did  not  go  beyond  Heth,  the 
supposed  ancestor  of  the  Hittites. 

Shem,  meaning  simply  "name,"  implied  the 
noble  strain  in  the  descendants  of  Noah.  Arpach- 
shad  was  the  name  of  a  place,  Shelah  signified 
"emigration,"  and  Peleg  "division."  The  ethnog- 
raphy is  by  no  means  systematic  or  clear,  and 
there  is  a  repetition  of  names.  Sheba  and  Havi- 
lah  are  given  both  as  descendants  of  Ham  and  of 
Shem.  The  former  represented  the  people  of 
Southern  Arabia,  who  are  supposed  to  have  be- 
come the  progenitors  of  the  Nubians  and  Abyssin- 
ians.     Uz   and   Jobab,  which   irresistibly  suggest 


S6  THE   MYTHS  OF    ISRAEL 

Job  and  the  land  of  Uz,  appear  again  in  the  gene- 
alogies of  Seir  and  Edom  (Chapter  xxxvi.).  The 
whole  scheme  was  a  rough  attempt  at  accounting 
for  the  origin  of  the  nations  "  divided  in  the  earth 
after  the  flood,"  according  to  the  imperfect  geo- 
graphical knowledge  of  the  writer,  and  the  slight 
revision  of  the  compiler  probably  produced  the 
repetitions. 

The  compiler  followed  this  with  a  fragment 
(xi.  1-9)  bearing  the  distinct  characteristics  of  the 
Jehovist,  with  his  fondness  for  the  fabulous  in 
dealing  with  the  perversities  of  man.  The  pre- 
ceding genealogy  distinctly  implied  a  diversity  of 
language  in  the  division  of  the  races,  "  after  their 
tongues,"  as  well  as  their  families,  but  this  frag- 
ment assumed  "one  speech"  until  it  was  "con- 
founded "  in  consequence  of  a  rash  attempt  to 
keep  the  people  from  being  scattered  over  the 
earth,  by  building  a  tower  which  should  reach 
heaven.  This  picturesque  bit  of  mythism  was 
undoubtedly  suggested  by  the  unfinished  temple 
of  Bel  in  "the  land  of  Shinar,"  and  the  assumed 
derivation  of  its  name  from  the  Hebrew  verb  "to 
confound  "  was  mere  fancy.  It  really  meant  the 
gate  (or  the  house)  of  Bel,  the  deity  of  the  Baby- 
lonians, and  had  no  etymological  relation  to 
"balal"  or  any  other  Hebrew  word. 


POST-DILUVIAN   GENERATIONS  8? 

After  this  a  characteristic  piece  of  genealogy 
from  the  Elohist  (xi.  10-32)  was  introduced,  trac- 
ing the  direct  line  of  descent  from  Shem  to 
Abram.  Exactly  what  significance  might  be 
attached  to  the  definite  statement  of  the  ages  of 
the  several  begetters  of  these  generations  —  ten 
in  number  like  those  before  the  flood  —  we  cannot 
say,  but  they  furnish  the  means,  if  any  is  neces- 
sary, for  exposing  the  utterly  unhistorical  charac- 
ter of  the  whole  scheme.  It  represents  the  time 
in  which  Abram  lived  as  being  only  three  to  four 
centuries  after  the  destruction  of  all  mankind  ex- 
cept one  family,  from  which  he  was  descended  in 
the  tenth  generation.  And  yet  in  that  brief  period 
had  grown  up  many  nations  scattered  over  a  wide 
area,  with  their  various  "borders"  and  cities,  and 
"the  great  City  of"  Nineveh  had  been  long  ago 
founded.  We  know  now  that  still  existing  pyramids 
must  have  been  built  a  thousand  years  before  the 
time  assigned  to  Abram  by  the  Hebrews  them- 
selves, and  their  own  account  of  his  career  implies 
antiquity  in  the  "Chaldees,"  and  the  establishment, 
for  an  indefinite  time,  of  the  Kingdom  of  Egypt. 

Apart  from  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that 
all  the  development  implied  in  these  narratives, 
and  well  ascertained  from  other  sources,  had 
taken   place  in  three  or  four   centuries  of   time, 


88  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

if  we  note  that  this  genealogy  itself  would  make 
Shem,  the  son  of  Noah,  a  survivor  of  Abraham 
by  thirty-five  years,  and  a  living  contemporary 
of  Pharaoh,  Abimelech,  and  the  other  potentates 
of  their  time,  the  assumption  takes  a  ludicrous 
aspect.  The  subject  can,  however,  be  regarded 
seriously  without  being  taken  as  even  intended 
to  be  matter  of  fact. 

The  first  eleven  chapters  of  Genesis  consti- 
tute a  work  by  themselves,  composite,  irregular, 
and  fragmentary,  but  forming  a  prelude  to  the 
mythical  history  of  Israel's  ancestry. 

[X-XI] 

Now  these  are  the  generations  of  the  sons  of 
Noah  :  Shem,  Ham  and  Japheth ;  and  unto  them 
were  sons  born  after  the  flood. 

The  sons  of  Japheth  :  Gomer,  and  Magog,  and 
Madai,  and  Javan,  and  Tubal,  and  Meshech,  and 
Tiras.  And  the  sons  of  Gomer  :  Ashkenaz,  and  Ri- 
phath,  and  Togarmah.  And  the  sons  of  Javan : 
Elishah,  and  Tarshish,  Kittim,  and  Dodanim.  Of 
these  were  the  isles  of  the  nations  divided  in  their 
lands,  every  one  after  his  tongue  ;  after  their  fami- 
lies, in  their  nations. 

And  the  sons  of  Ham  :  Cush,  and  Mizraim,  and 
Put,  and  Canaan.  And  the  sons  of  Cush  :  Seba, 
and  Havilah,  and  Sabtah,  and  Raamah,  and  Sab- 
teca ;  and  the  sons  of  Raamah  :  Sheba,  and  Dedan. 


POST-DILUVIAN   GENERATIONS  89 

[And  Cush  begat  Nimrod.  He  began  to  be  a  mighty 
one  in  the  earth.  He  was  a  mighty  hunter  before  the 
Lord  ;  wherefore  it  is  said,  Like  Nimrod  a  mighty 
hunter  before  the  Lord.  And  the  beginning  of  his 
kingdom  was  Babel,  and  Erech,  and  Accad,  and 
Calneh,  in  the  land  of  Shinar.  Out  of  that  land  he 
went  forth  into  Assyria,  and  builded  Nineveh,  and 
Rehoboth-Ir,  and  Calah,  and  Resen  between  Nine- 
veh and  Calah  (the  same  is  the  great  city).]  And 
Mizraim  begat  Ludim,  and  Anamim,  and  Lehabim, 
and  Naphtuhim,  and  Pathrusim,  and  Casluhim. 
[whence  went  forth  the  Philistines],  and  Caphtorim. 

And  Canaan  begat  Zidon  his  first-born,  and  Heth, 
and  the  Jebusite,  and  the  Amorite,  and  the  Girga- 
shite,  and  the  Hivite,  and  the  Arkite,  and  the  Si- 
nite,  and  the  Arvadite,  and  the  Zemarite,  and  the 
Hamathite ;  and  afterward  were  the  families  of  the 
Canaanite  spread  abroad.  And  the  border  of 
the  Canaanite  was  from  Zidon,  as  thou  goest  toward 
Gerar,  unto  Gaza ;  as  thou  goest  toward  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  and  Admah  and  Zeboiim,  unto  Lasha. 
These  are  the  sons  of  Ham,  after  their  families, 
after  their  tongues,  in  their  lands,  in  their  nations. 

And  unto  Shem,  the  father  of  all  the  children  of 
Eber,  the  elder  brother  of  Japheth,  to  him  also 
were  children  born.  The  sons  of  Shem :  Elam, 
and  Asshur,  and  Arpachshad,  and  Lud,  and  Aram. 
And  the  sons  of  Aram  :  Uz,  and  Hul,  and  Gether,  and 
Mash.  And  Arpachshad  begat  Shelah,  and  Shelah 
begat  Eber.  And  unto  Eber  were  born  two  sons ; 
the  name  of  the  one  was  Peleg,  for  in  his  days  was 


90  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

the  earth  divided  ;  and  his  brother's  name  was  Jok- 
tan.  And  Joktan  begat  Almodad,  and  Sheleph,  and 
Hazarmaveth,  and  Jerah  ;  and  Hadoram,  and  Uzal, 
and  Diklahj  and  Obal,  and  Abimael,  and  Sheba; 
and  Ophir,  and  Havilah,  and  Jobab  :  all  these  were 
the  sons  of  Joktan.  And  their  dwelling  was  from 
Mesha,  as  thou  goest  toward  Sephar,  the  mountain 
of  the  east.  These  are  the  sons  of  Shem,  after  their 
families,  after  their  tongues,  in  their  lands,  after  their 
nations. 

These  are  the  families  of  the  sons  of  Noah,  after 
their  generations,  in  their  nations;  and  of  these  were 
the  nations  divided  in  the  earth  after  the  flood. 

[And  the  whole  earth  was  of  one  language  and  of 
one  speech.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  they  journeyed 
east,  that  they  found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar ; 
and  they  dwelt  there.  And  they  said  one  to  an- 
other, Go  to,  let  us  make  brick,  and  burn  them 
thoroughly.  And  they  had  brick  for  stone,  and  bi- 
tumen had  they  for  mortar.  And  they  said,  Go  to, 
let  us  build  us  a  city,  and  a  tower,  whose  top  may 
reach  unto  heaven,  to  make  us  a  name,  lest  we  be 
scattered  abroad  upon  the  face  of  the  whole 
earth. 

And  the  Lord  came  down  to  see  the  city  and  the 
tower,  which  the  children  of  men  builded.  And  the 
Lord  said,  Behold,  they  are  one  people,  and  they 
have  all  one  language  ;  and  this  is  what  they  begin 
to  do,  and  now  nothing  will  be  withholden  from 
them  which  they  purpose  to  do.     Go  to,  let  us  go 


POST-DILUVIAN   GENERATIONS  91 

down,  and  there  confound  their  language,  that  they 
may  not  understand  one  another's  speech. 

So  the  Lord  scattered  them  abroad  from  thence 
upon  the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and  they  left  off 
building  the  city.  Therefore  was  the  name  of  it 
called  Babel ;  because  the  Lord  did  there  confound 
the  language  of  all  the  earth ;  and  from  thence  did 
the  Lord  scatter  them  abroad  upon  the  face  of  all 
the  earth.] 

These  are  the  generations  of  Shem.  Shem  was 
an  hundred  years  old,  and  begat  Arpachshad  two 
years  after  the  flood  ;  and  Shem  lived  after  he  be- 
gat Arpachshad  five  hundred  years,  and  begat  sons 
and  daughters. 

And  Arpachshad  lived  five  and  thirty  years,  and 
begat  Shelah  ;  and  Arpachshad  lived  after  he  begat 
Shelah  four  hundred  and  three  years,  and  begat  sons 
and  daughters. 

And  Shelah  lived  thirty  years,  and  begat  Eber; 
and  Shelah  lived  after  he  begat  Eber  four  hundred 
and  three  years,  and  begat  sons  and  daughters. 

And  Eber  lived  four  and  thirty  years,  and  begat 
Peleg;  and  Eber  lived  after  he  begat  Peleg  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years,  and  begat  sons  and 
daughters. 

And  Peleg  lived  thirty  years,  and  begat  Reu  ;  and 
Peleg  lived  after  he  begat  Reu  two  hundred  and  nine 
years,  and  begat  sons  and  daughters. 

And  Reu  lived  two  and  thirty  years,  and  begat 
Serug;    and    Reu   lived   after  he   begat  Serug  two 


92  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

hundred    and    seven    years,    and    begat   sons   and 
daughters. 

And  Serug  lived  thirty  years,  and  begat  Nahor ; 
and  Serug  lived  after  he  begat  Nahor  two  hundred 
years,  and  begat  sons  and  daughters. 

And  Nahor  lived  nine  and  twenty  years,  and  begat 
Terah  ;  and  Nahor  lived  after  he  begat  Terah  an 
hundred  and  nineteen  years,  and  begat  sons  and 
daughters. 

And  Terah  lived  seventy  years,  and  begat  Abram, 
Nahor,  and  Haran. 

Now  these  are  the  generations  of  Terah.  Terah 
begat  Abram,  Nahor,  and  Haran  ;  and  Haran  begat 
Lot.  And  Haran  died  in  the  presence  of  his  father 
Terah  in  the  land  of  his  nativity,  in  Ur  of  the  Chal- 
dees.  And  Abram  and  Nahor  took  them  wives. 
The  name  of  Abram's  wife  was  Sarai ;  and  the  name 
of  Nahor's  wife,  Milcah,  the  daughter  of  Haran,  the 
father  of  Milcah,  and  the  father  of  Iscah.  And 
Sarai  was  barren ;  she  had  no  child.  And  Terah 
took  Abram  his  son,  and  Lot  the  son  of  Haran,  his 
son's  son,  and  Sarai  his  daughter  in  law,  his  son 
Abram's  wife  ;  and  they  went  forth  with  them  from 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  to  go  into  the  land  of  Canaan  ; 
and  they  came  unto  Haran,  and  dwelt  there.  And 
the  days  of  Terah  were  two  hundred  and  five  years ; 
and  Terah  died  in  Haran. 


VI 

ABRAHAM    TAKES    POSSESSION    OF    THE    LAND 

With  Chapter  xii.  begins  the  story  of  Abraham, 
transformed  from  the  mythical  Chaldean  king, 
father  Orham,  and  from  the  putative  ancestor  of 
the  kindred  Semitic  peoples,  from  the  river  to  the 
sea,  into  the  personal  forefather  of  the  Hebrew- 
tribes.  The  different  elements  in  this  production 
are  not  so  clearly  distinguishable  as  those  of  the 
preceding  section  of  the  book,  but  there  is  plain 
evidence  of  their  existence  in  the  many  inconsist- 
encies of  the  narrative.  The  compiler  wrought 
his  materials  together  more  completely,  but  not 
much  more  harmoniously,  and  the  work  of  his 
own  hand  is  more  manifest.  The  Elohist  docu- 
ment appears  to  have  been  rather  meagre  so  far 
as  it  related  to  the  Abraham  legend,  and  the  three 
episodes  of  Chapters  xii.  and  xiii.  are  mainly  from 
the  Jehovist  and  derived  by  him  largely  from  the 
original  patriarchal  idyls. 

The  first  episode  describes  Abraham's  departure 
from  his  own  country  to  Shechem,  where  the  land 
was    promised   to    his    progeny.     The   event  was 

93 


94  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

commemorated  by  building  an  altar,  and  then  the 
possession  of  Bethel  was  consecrated  by  the  same 
means.  The  passage  in  brackets  is  of  different 
material  from  the  rest  and  doubtless  from  the 
Elohist.  Having  taken  possession  of  the  North, 
Abraham  journeyed  south. 

The  second  episode,  beginning  with  xii.  n,  is 
quite  disconnected  from  this,  and  illustrates  the 
divine  favor  supposed  to  be  bestowed  upon  Abra- 
ham to  protect  him  in  a  foreign  land  and  to 
give  him  wealth.  The  device  of  a  famine  to 
account  for  his  going  into  Egypt,  and  of  plagues 
to  explain  his  departure,  was  afterwards  applied  in 
a  developed  form  in  the  case  of  his  posterity. 
The  incident  of  representing  his  wife  to  be  his 
sister,  as  a  means  of  protection  to  himself,  throws 
light  upon  the  moral  ideas  of  the  writer's  time. 
There  was  no  safeguard  for  the  chastity  of  an 
unmarried  woman,  whether  maid  or  widow,  but 
any  violation  of  the  exclusive  rights  of  the  hus- 
band was  regarded  with  horror.  There  appears 
to  have  been  no  sense  of  outrage  if  a  sister  should 
be  appropriated  for  the  harem  of  a  sensual  mon- 
arch, and  Abraham  is  represented  as  being  willing 
that  his  wife  should  meet  the  fate  that  might 
befall  a  sister  to  save  himself  from  the  fate  of 
having  her  made  a  widow.     The  moral  aspect  of 


ABRAHAM  TAKES  POSSESSION  OF  THE  LAND       95 

the  case  is  somewhat  mitigated  by  the  fact  that 
the  writer  was  dealing  with  symbolical  characters 
rather  than  real  persons,  but  it  nevertheless  re- 
flects the  habit  of  thought  of  the  time.  Perhaps 
the  aesthetic  aspect  of  the  case  may  also  be  re- 
lieved by  the  lack  of  reality  in  the  characters ;  for 
the  charms  of  Sarai  must  have  been  somewhat 
mature,  as  she  was  said  to  be  sixty-five  years  of 
age  when  they  left  Haran. 

The  third  episode  (Chapter  xiii. )  explains  the 
division  of  the  land  between  Abraham,  as  the  an- 
cestor of  Israel,  and  Lot,  as  the  ancestor  of  Moab 
and  Amnion,  and  the  former's  exclusive  possession 
of  the  land  of  Canaan,  albeit  the  "  Canaanite  and 
Perizzite"  then  dwelt  there.  There  are  traces  of 
two  diverse  accounts  of  the  division,  one  attribut- 
ing it  to  the  increase  of  the  substance  of  the  two 
chiefs,  and  the  other  to  strife  between  their  herds- 
men. Notwithstanding  all  his  wealth  and  sub- 
stance in  flocks  and  herds,  the  patriarch  is 
described  as  passing  through  the  land  to  revisit 
his  altar  at  Bethel  and  as  moving  his  tent  to 
Hebron,  the  place  which  first  became  the  centre 
of  consecration  for  the  Kingdom  of  Judah.  This 
latter  is  apparently  a  touch  from  the  Judean  com- 
piler, but  the  whole  is  in  the  true  spirit  of  legend, 
typifying  in  a  sweeping  way  the  original  occupa- 


96  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

tion  of  the  country.  The  interpolated  statement 
as  to  the  wickedness  of  Sodom  appears  to  be  the 
compiler's  preparation  for  the  story  of  its  destruc- 
tion introduced  farther  on. 

[XII,  XIII] 

Now  the  Lord  said  unto  Abram,  Get  thee  out  of 
thy  country,  and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy 
father's  house,  unto  the  land  that  I  will  shew  thee  ; 
and  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  nation,  and  I  will 
bless  thee,  and  make  thy  name  great ;  and  be  thou 
a  blessing,  and  I  will  bless  them  that  bless  thee, 
and  him  that  curseth  thee  will  I  curse,  and  in  thee 
shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed. 

So  Abram  went,  as  the  Lord  had  spoken  unto 
him ;  and  Lot  went  with  him  :  [and  Abram  was 
seventy  and  five  years  old  when  he  departed  out  of 
Haran.  And  Abram  took  Sarai  his  wife,  and  Lot 
his  brother's  son,  and  all  their  substance  that  they 
had  gathered,  and  the  souls  that  they  had  gotten  in 
Haran  ;  and  they  went  forth  to  go  into  the  land  of 
Canaan  ;  and  into  the  land  of  Canaan  thev  came.] 

And  Abram  passed  through  the  land  unto  the 
place  of  Shechem,  unto  the  oak  of  Moreh.  And 
the  Canaanite  was  then  in  the  land.  And  the  Lord 
appeared  unto  Abram,  and  said,  Unto  thy  posterity 
will  I  give  this  land  :  and  there  builded  he  an  altar 
unto  the  Lord,  who  appeared  unto  him.  And  he 
removed  from  thence  unto  the  mountain  on  the  east 
of  Beth- el,  and  pitched  his  tent,  having  Beth-el  on 


ABRAHAM  TAKES  POSSESSION  OF  THE  LAND       07 

the  west,  and  Ai  on  the  east ;  and  there  he  builded 
an  altar  unto  the  Lord,  and  called  upon  the  name 
of  the  Lord. 

And  Abram  journeyed,  going  on  still  toward  the 
South ;  and  there  was  a  famine  in  the  land,  and 
Abram  went  down  into  Egypt  to  sojourn  there,  for 
the  famine  was  sore  in  the  land. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  he  was  come  near  to 
enter  into  Egypt,  that  he  said  unto  Sarai  his  wife, 
Behold  now,  I  know  that  thou  art  a  fair  woman  to 
look  upon  ;  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  the 
Egyptians  shall  see  thee,  that  they  shall  say,  This  is 
his  wife,  and  they  will  kill  me,  but  they  will  save 
thee  alive.  Say,  I  pray  thee,  thou  art  my  sister, 
that  it  may  be  well  with  me  for  thy  sake,  and  that 
my  soul  may  live  because  of  thee. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that,  when  Abram  was  come 
into  Egypt,  the  Egyptians  beheld  the  woman  that 
she  was  very  fair.  And  the  princes  of  Pharaoh  saw 
her,  and  praised  her  to  Pharaoh  ;  and  the  woman  was 
taken  into  Pharaoh's  house.  And  he  dealt  well  with 
Abram  for  her  sake ;  and  he  had  sheep,  and  oxen, 
and  he-asses,  and  menservants,  and  maidservants, 
and  she-asses,  and  camels.  And  the  Lord  plagued 
Pharaoh  and  his  house  with  great  plagues  because 
of  Sarai  Abram's  wife.  And  Pharaoh  called  Abram, 
and  said,  What  is  this  that  thou  hast  done  unto  me? 
Why  didst  thou  not  tell  me  that  she  was  thy  wife? 
Why  saidst  thou,  She  is  my  sister,  so  that  I  took  her 
to  be  my  wife  ?     Now  therefore  behold  thy  wife,  take 

H 


98  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

her,  and  go  thy  way.  And  Pharaoh  gave  men 
charge  concerning  him  ;  and  they  brought  him  on 
the  way,  and  his  wife,  and  all  that  he  had. 

And  Abram  went  up  out  of  Egypt,  he,  and  his  wife, 
and  all  that  he  had,  into  the  South,  and  Lot  was  with 
him.  [And  Abram  was  very  rich  in  cattle,  in  silver, 
and  in  gold.]  And  he  went  on  his  journeys  from  the 
South  even  to  Beth-el,  unto  the  place  where  his  tent 
had  been  at  the  beginning,  between  Beth-el  and  Ai ; 
unto  the  place  of  the  altar,  which  he  had  made  there 
at  the  first ;  and  there  Abram  called  on  the  name  of 
the  Lord. 

[And  Lot  also,  which  went  with  Abram,  had  flocks, 
and  herds,  and  tents.  And  the  land  was  not  able  to 
bear  them,  that  they  might  dwell  together,  for  their 
substance  was  great,  so  that  they  could  not  dwell  to- 
gether.] And  there  was  a  strife  between  the  herdmen 
of  Abram's  cattle  and  the  herdmen  of  Lot's  cattle : 
\_and  the  Canaanite  and  the  Perizzite  dwelled  then  in 
the  land.']  And  Abram  said  unto  Lot,  Let  there  be 
no  strife,  I  pray  thee,  between  me  and  thee,  and  be- 
tween my  herdmen  and  thy  herdmen ;  for  we  are 
brethren.  Is  not  the  whole  land  before  thee?  Sepa- 
rate thyself,  I  pray  thee,  from  me ;  if  thou  wilt  take 
the  left  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  right ;  or  if  thou 
take  the  right  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  left. 

And  Lot  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  beheld  all  the  Plain 
of  Jordan,  that  it  was  well  watered  every  where  be- 
fore the  Lord  destroyed  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  like 
the  garden  of  the  Lord,  like  the  land  of  Egypt,  as 


ABRAHAM  TAKES  POSSESSION  OF  THE  LAND       99 

thou  goest  unto  Zoar.  So  Lot  chose  him  all  the 
Plain  of  Jordan;  and  Lot  journeyed  east;  [and  they 
separated  themselves  the  one  from  the  other.  Abram 
dwelled  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  Lot  dwelled  in  the 
cities  of  the  Plain,]  and  moved  his  tent  as  far  as 
Sodom.  \_JV01a  the  men  of  Sodom  were  wicked  and 
sinners  against  the  Lord  exceedingly^ 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  Abram,  after  that  Lot  was 
separated  from  him,  Lift  up  now  thine  eyes,  and  look 
from  the  place  where  thou  art,  northward  and  south- 
ward and  eastward  and  westward ;  for  all  the  land 
which  thou  seest,  to  thee  will  I  give  it,  and  to  thy 
posterity  for  ever.  And  I  will  make  thy  race  as  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  so  that  if  a  man  can  number  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  then  shall  thy  race  also  be  num- 
bered. Arise,  walk  through  the  land  in  the  length 
of  it  and  in  the  breadth  of  it ;  for  unto  thee  will  I 
give  it. 

And  Abram  moved  his  tent,  and  came  and  dwelt 
by  the  terebinths  of  Mamre,  which  are  in  Hebron, 
and  built  there  an  altar  unto  the  Lord. 


VII 


ABRAHAM    AS    A    WARLIKE    CHIEF 

The  passage  which  stands  apart  as  the  four- 
teenth chapter  of  Genesis  presents  Abraham  in 
a  character  and  aspect  that  appear  nowhere  else. 
Whether  the  compiler  found  it  as  a  legend  com- 
plete in  itself,  or  extracted  it  from  some  longer 
document,  or  whether  he  composed  it  from  existing 
material,  written  or  oral,  with  a  purpose  of  his 
own,  is  matter  only  of  conjecture.  Most  critics 
assume  that  it  was  contained  in  the  Jehovist 
document,  but  two  widely  different  views  have 
been  taken  of  it. 

Some  have  regarded  it  as  a  fragment  of  ancient 
chronicle,  revealing  glimpses  of  an  antique  world 
in  the  light  of  reality,  —  a  scene  torn  from  a  pano- 
rama of  prehistoric  life  in  the  weird  region  of  the 
Dead  Sea.  Others  see  in  it  a  myth  later  than  the 
main  substance  of  the  story  rather  than  earlier, 
illustrating,  like  many  another  legend  of  the  kind, 
the  invincible  might  of  the  favorite  of  Israel's  God 
as  against  the  heathen.  In  support  of  this  view  is 
cited  the  extravagant  improbability  of  the  exploit  of 

IOO 


ABRAHAM   AS  A   WARLIKE  CHIEF  IOI 

pursuing  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land  the  armies  of  the  confederated  kings,  with 
a  band  of  three  hundred  and  eighteen  trained  men 
"born  in  his  house,"  and  recovering  their  plunder. 
The  use  of  the  name  "  Damascus  "  was  relatively 
modern,  and  Dan,  at  the  northern  border  of  the 
land,  was  established  late  in  the  period  of  the 
judges.  Of  the  country  devastated  by  the  invad- 
ing kings  from  the  East  was  that  of  the  Amale- 
kites.  In  the  ethnographical  system  of  the  book, 
the  Amalekites  were  the  descendants  of  Amalek, 
and  in  the  eponymic  genealogies  of  the  Elohist, 
farther  on,  Amalek  was  the  grandson  of  Abra- 
ham's grandson  Esau. 

These  anachronisms  appear  inconsistent  with 
the  assumed  antiquity  of  the  composition,  what- 
ever may  be  said  of  the  traditions  from  which 
it  might  have  been  derived.  The  vivid  picture 
of  Melchizedek,  blessing  Abraham,  and  receiving 
from  him  a  tenth  of  all,  is  so  different  from  all 
other  references  in  Hebrew  story  to  alien  rulers 
and  pagan  priests,  as  to  suggest  a  device  for 
giving  an  ancient  sanctity  to  Salem,  the  site  of 
the  Judean  capital,  to  the  union  of  the  functions 
of  king  and  priest  in  one  person,  and  to  the  pay- 
ment of  tithes  for  the  support  of  his  beneficent 
sway.     Moreover,   the   significance  of   the   name, 


102  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

"  King  of  righteousness,"  would  rather  imply  a 
symbolical  character  in  the  whole  story  than 
a  recognition  of  superior  sovereignty  in  an  ancient 
Jebusite  monarch  on  the  height  of  Salem  (peace). 
These  suggestions,  if  they  point  to  the  truth, 
indicate  a  relatively  late  composition  for  this  pas- 
sage, though  wrought  upon  an  antique  pattern. 
The  term  "  El-Elion  "  (God  most  high)  was  in 
use  in  Phoenicia. 

The  writer  of  the  letter  to  the  Hebrews  in  the 
New  Testament,  erroneously  credited  to  St.  Paul 
in  the  canon,  plainly  regarded  Melchizedek  as 
an  allegorical  character,  "  being  first,  by  inter- 
pretation, King  of  righteousness,  and  then  also 
King  of  Salem,  which  is  King  of  peace ;  without 
father,  without  mother,  without  genealogy,  having 
neither  beginning  of  days  nor  end  of  life,  but 
made  like  unto  the  Son  of  God."  Doubtless  the 
whole  story  of  the  slaughter  of  the  kings,  and 
the  giving  of  a  tenth  of  all  the  recovered  spoil 
to  this  king  of  righteousness  and  peace,  was  a 
symbolical  representation  of  the  power  and  sanc- 
tity of  Israel's  mythical  ancestor,  and  of  the 
obligation  of  his  descendants  to  devote  a  tithe 
of  their  substance  to  the  consecrated  impersona- 
tion of  an  authority  derived  from  the  God  of 
Abraham.     One  of  the  incidental  touches  which 


ABRAHAM   AS   A   WARLIKE   CHIEF  103 

seem  inconsistent  with  the  special  antiquity  of 
this  production  is  the  prosaic  statement  that  one 
who  had  escaped  "told  Abram  the  Hebrew." 
The  word  "  Hebrew  "  did  not  come,  into  use  as 
a  designation  of  the  people  of  Israel  until  after 
the  establishment  of  the  kingdoms.  The  main 
features  of  the  narrative  were  doubtless  suggested 
by  one  of  the  many  invasions  of  the  Southern 
country  from  Shinar  (Chaldea)  and  Elam  (be- 
yond the  Tigris).  The  original  author  perhaps 
made  use  of  real  traditions  and  wove  into  them 
the  exploits  of  Abraham. 

[XIV] 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Amraphel  king 
of  Shinar,  Arioch  king  of  Ellasar,  Chedorlaomer 
king  of  Elam,  and  Tidal  king  of  Goiim,  that  they 
made  war  with  Bera  king  of  Sodom,  and  with  Birsha 
king  of  Gomorrah,  Shinab  king  of  Admah,  and 
Shemeber  king  of  Zeboiim,  and  the  king  of  Bela 
\_the  same  is  Zoar\.  All  these  joined  together  in 
the  vale  of  Siddim  [the  same  is  the  Salt  Sea~\. 
Twelve  years  they  served  Chedorlaomer,  and  in 
the  thirteenth  year  they  rebelled. 

And  in  the  fourteenth  year  came  Chedorlaomer, 
and  the  kings  that  were  with  him,  and  smote  the 
Rephaim  in  Ashteroth-karnaim,  and  the  Zuzim  in 
Ham,  and  the  Emim  in  Shaveh-kiriathaim,  and  the 
Horites  in  their  mount  Seir,  unto  El-paran,  which 


104  THE   MYTHS  OF  ISRAEL 

is  by  the  wilderness.  And  they  returned,  and  came 
to  En-mishpat  [the  same  is  Kadesh~\,  and  smote  all 
the  country  of  the  Amalekites,  and  also  the  Amo- 
rites,  that  dwelt  in  Hazazon-tamar.  And  there 
went  out  the  king  of  Sodom,  and  the  king  of 
Gomorrah,  and  the  king  of  Admah,  and  the  king 
of  Zeboiim,  and  the  king  of  Bela  [///<?  same  is 
Zoar\  ;  and  they  set  the  battle  in  array  against 
them  in  the  vale  of  Siddim  ;  against  Chedorlaomer 
king  of  Elam,  and  Tidal  king  of  Goiim,  and  Am- 
raphel  king  of  Shinar,  and  Arioch  king  of  Ellasar ; 
four  kings  against  the  five. 

Now  the  vale  of  Siddim  was  full  of  bitumen  pits ; 
and  the  kings  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  tied,  and 
they  fell  there,  and  they  that  remained  fled  to  the 
mountain.  And  they  took  all  the  goods  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  and  all  their  victuals,  and  went  their 
way.  And  they  took  Lot,  Abram's  brother's  son, 
who  dwelt  in  Sodom,  and  his  goods,  and  departed. 
And  there  came  one  that  had  escaped,  and  told 
Abram  the  Hebrew.  Now  he  dwelt  by  the  oaks  of 
Mamre  the  Amorite,  brother  of  Eshcol,  and  brother 
of  Aner ;  and  these  were  confederate  with  Abram. 

And  when  Abram  heard  that  his  brother  was 
taken  captive,  he  led  forth  his  trained  men,  born  in 
his  house,  three  hundred  and  eighteen,  and  pursued 
as  far  as  Dan.  And  he  divided  himself  against  them 
by  night,  he  and  his  servants,  and  smote  them,  and 
pursued  them  unto  Hobah,  which  is  on  the  left 
hand  of  Damascus.  And  he  brought  back  all  the 
goods,  and  also  brought  again  his  brother  Lot,  and 


ABRAHAM   AS   A   WARLIKE   CHIEF  105 

his  goods,  and  the  women  also,  and  the  people. 
And  the  king  of  Sodom  went  out  to  meet  him,  after 
his  return  from  the  slaughter  of  Chedorlaomer  and 
the  kings  that  were  with  him,  at  the  vale  of  Shaveh 
\Jhe  same  is  the  King's  Vale']. 

And  Melchizedek  king  of  Salem  brought  forth 
bread  and  wine ;  and  he  was  priest  of  God  Most 
High  [El-Elion].  And  he  blessed  him,  and  said, 
Blessed  be  Abram  of  God  Most  High,  maker  of 
heaven  and  earth ;  and  blessed  be  God  Most  High, 
which  hath  delivered  thine  enemies  into  thy  hand. 
And  he  gave  him  a  tenth  of  all. 

And  the  king  of  Sodom  said  unto  Abram,  Give 
me  the  persons,  and  take  the  goods  to  thyself. 
And  Abram  said  to  the  king  of  Sodom,  I  have  lifted 
up  mine  hand  unto  the  Lord,  God  Most  High, 
maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  I  will  not  take  a 
thread  nor  a  shoelatchet  nor  aught  that  is  thine,  lest 
thou  shouldest  say,  I  have  made  Abram  rich ;  save 
only  that  which  the  young  men  have  eaten,  and 
the  portion  of  the  men  who  went  with  me,  Aner, 
Eshcol,  and  Mamre,  let  them  take  their  portion. 


VIII 

FIRST  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  COVENANT 

Chapter  xv.  contains  the  Jehovist  account 
of  the  original  compact  between  Abraham  and 
Jehovah,  which  appears  to  be  made  up  from 
the  most  ancient  material.  It  has  a  weird  qual- 
ity peculiar  to  itself,  —  in  the  word  of  the  Lord 
coming  in  a  vision,  in  the  antique  sacrifice  as  a 
ceremony  in  making  a  solemn  covenant,  in  the 
prediction  of  Egyptian  servitude  and  deliver- 
ance, and  in  the  flame  and  smoke  to  indicate 
the  presence  of  deity.  It  involves  only  the 
promise  of  the  possession  of  the  land  to  the 
posterity  of  Abraham,  which  is  made  more  im- 
pressive by  the  not  uncommon  device  of  repre- 
senting him  as  old  and  childless  at  the  time. 
It  will  be  observed  that  this  version  of  the  story 
brings  Abraham  himself  and  not  his  father  Terah 
from  "Ur  of  the  Chaldees." 

The  fact  that  the  reciprocal  obligation  of 
obedience  does  not  appear,  and  no  religious  as- 
pect is  given  to  the  transaction,  leads  one  to 
believe   that   the    account   was    part    of    the    old 

1 06 


FIRST   ACCOUNT   OF  THE   COVENANT  107 

material  used  by  the  Jehovist,  rather  than  of 
his  own  composition.  It  is  quite  distinct  from 
what  precedes  and  follows,  and  the  mythical 
quality  is  unusually  marked.  The  promise  of 
dominion  from  the  "River  of  Egypt"  to  the  Eu- 
phrates was  according  to  the  hope  always  cher- 
ished in  Israel  but  never  realized.  The  epithet 
"Dammesek,"  applied  to  Abraham's  servant  Elie- 
zer,  is  commonly  explained  as  meaning  Damas- 
cene, but  some  learned  Hebraists  regard  this  as 
a  misconception  of  the  original.  The  phrase 
rendered  by  this  word,  "  Dammesek,"  is  said  to 
be  unusual  but  capable  of  signifying  the  son  of 
property  as  distinguished  from  the  son  of  the 
person,  and  therefore  implying  inheritance  other- 
wise than  by  blood,  where  there  is  failure  of 
offspring,  in  accordance  with  an  ancient  rule 
for  the  descent  of  property. 

The  opening  phrase  of  this  passage,  "after 
these  things,"  merely  constitutes  a  connective 
expression,  the  equivalent  of  which  was  fre- 
quently used  by  the  compiler  in  passing  from 
one  to  another  of  the  episodes  culled  from  his 
varied  material. 

[XV] 

After  these  things  the  word  of  the  Lord  came 
unto  Abram  in  a  vision,  saying,  Fear  not,  Abram ;  I 


108  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

am  thy  shield,  and  thy  reward  shall  be  exceeding 
great.  And  Abram  said,  O  Lord  God,  what  wilt 
thou  give  me,  seeing  I  go  childless,  and  he  that  shall 
be  possessor  of  my  house  is  Dammesek  Eliezer? 
And  Abram  said,  Behold,  to  me  thou  hast  given  no 
offspring ;  and,  lo,  one  born  in  my  house  is  mine 
heir. 

And,  behold,  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  unto 
him,  saying,  This  man  shall  not  be  thine  heir ;  but 
he  that  shall  come  forth  out  of  thine  own  bowels 
shall  be  thine  heir.  And  he  brought  him  forth 
abroad,  and  said,  Look  now  toward  heaven,  and  tell 
the  stars,  if  thou  be  able  to  tell  them  :  and  he  said 
unto  him,  So  shall  thy  posterity  be.  And  he  be- 
lieved in  the  Lord  ;  and  he  counted  it  to  him  for 
righteousness. 

And  he  said  unto  him,  I  am  the  Lord  that  brought 
thee  out  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  to  give  thee  this  land 
to  inherit  it.  And  he  said,  O  Lord  God,  whereby 
shall  I  know  that  I  shall  inherit  it?  And  he  said 
unto  him,  Take  me  an  heifer  of  three  years  old,  and 
a  she-goat  of  three  years  old,  and  a  ram  of  three 
years  old,  and  a  turtledove,  and  a  young  pigeon. 
And  he  took  him  all  these,  and  divided  them  in  the 
midst,  and  laid  each  half  over  against  the  other; 
but  the  birds  divided  he  not.  And  the  birds  of 
prey  came  down  upon  the  carcases,  and  Abram 
drove  them  away.  And  when  the  sun  was  going 
down,  a  deep  sleep  fell  upon  Abram ;  and,  lo,  an 
horror  of  great  darkness  fell  upon  him. 

And  he  said  unto  Abram,  Know  of  a  surety  that 


FIRST  ACCOUNT   OF  THE   COVENANT  IO9 

thy  offspring  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  land  that  is  not 
theirs,  and  shall  serve  them ;  and  they  shall  afflict 
them  four  hundred  years ;  and  also  that  nation, 
whom  they  shall  serve,  will  I  judge  ;  and  afterward 
shall  they  come  out  with  great  substance.  But  thou 
shalt  go  to  thy  fathers  in  peace ;  thou  shalt  be  bur- 
ied in  a  good  old  age.  And  in  the  fourth  generation 
they  shall  come  hither  again,  for  the  iniquity  of  the 
Amorite  is  not  yet  full. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that,  when  the  sun  went 
down,  and  it  was  dark,  behold  a  smoking  furnace, 
and  a  flaming  torch  that  passed  between  these 
pieces.  In  that  day  the  Lord  made  a  covenant 
with  Abram,  saying,  Unto  thy  race  have  I  given  this 
land,  from  the  river  of  Egypt  unto  the  great,  river, 
the  river  Euphrates  :  the  Kenite,  and  the  Kenizzite, 
and  the  Kadmonite,  and  the  Hittite,  and  the  Periz- 
zite,  and  the  Rephaim,  and  the  Amorite,  and  the 
Canaanite,  and  the  Girgashite,  and  the  Jebusite. 


IX 


FIRST    STORY    OF    HAGAR    AND    ISHMAEL 

The  people  of  Arabia  were  known  to  be  akin 
to  those  of  Palestine,  and  to  Israel  they  were 
known  generally  as  Ishmael  (God  hears),  or  as 
Ishmaelites.  Those  who  dwelt  in  Arabia  Petraea 
were  called  "  Hagrites,"  a  term  assumed  to  be  from 
Hagar,  meaning  "flight,"  the  same  as  Hegira. 
The  significance  of  the  names  attached  to  places 
and  to  tribes  and  peoples  usually  contained  the 
germs  of  the  ethnic  story  evolved  therefrom  to 
account  for  the  origin  of  such  peoples  and  their 
possession  of  the  places. 

The  Israelites  acknowledged  the  common  de- 
scent of  the  Ishmaelites  from  their  great  ances- 
tor, but  relegated  them  to  an  inferior  relation 
with  the  story  of  the  Egyptian  handmaid  and  her 
son.  The  story  seems  to  have  had  several  forms. 
In  that  contained  in  the  passage  below  (Genesis 
xvi.),  the  turning  into  the  wilderness  of  the  "wild 
ass  among  man  "  is  represented  as  taking  place 
in  the  person  of  the  mother  before  the  birth  of 
the   child,   because  she  began  to  assume  airs  of 

no 


FIRST   STORY   OF    HAGAR   AND    ISHMAEL      ill 

superiority  in  consequence  of  her  prospects.  The 
use  of  the  word  "angel"  in  our  English  version, 
here  and  elsewhere,  is  apt  to  be  misleading.  The 
original  (maleak)  varies  in  its  application,  but  fre- 
quently implies  an  apparition  of  the  actual  deity  in 
a  visible  or  audible  manner.  The  name  of  the 
well,  still  existing  in  the  writer's  day,  helped  out 
the  story,  as  it  implied  that  one  had  there  seen 
God  and  yet  lived.  The  fragments  in  brackets  are 
an  interpolation  from  the  Elohist  document,  which 
contained  the  Hagar  story  that  comes  later  on 
(Chapter  xxi.).  It  belongs  to  the  same  narrative 
with  the  fragment  in  Chapter  xii.,  which  says  that 
Abram  was  seventy-five  years  old  when  he  came 
to  the  land  of  Canaan. 

[XVI] 

Now  Sarai,  Abram's  wife,  bare  him  no  children ; 
and  she  had  an  handmaid,  an  Egyptian,  whose 
name  was  Hagar.  And  Sarai  said  unto  Abram, 
Behold  now,  the  Lord  hath  restrained  me  from 
bearing;  go  in,  I  pray  thee,  unto  my  handmaid; 
it  may  be  that  I  shall  obtain  children  by  her.  And 
Abram  hearkened  to  the  voice  of  Sarai.  [And  Sarai 
Abram's  wife  took  Hagar  the  Egyptian,  her  hand- 
maid, after  Abram  had  dwelt  ten  years  in  the  land 
of  Canaan,  and  gave  her  to  Abram  her  husband  to 
be  his  wife.]     And  he  went  in  unto  Hagar,  and  she 


112  THE    MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

conceived  j  and  when  she  saw  that  she  had    con- 
ceived, her  mistress  was  despised  in  her  eyes. 

And  Sarai  said  unto  Abram,  My  wrong  be  upon 
thee.  I  gave  my  handmaid  into  thy  bosom  ;  and 
when  she  saw  that  she  had  conceived,  I  was  despised 
in  her  eyes.  The  Lord  judge  between  me  and  thee. 
But  Abram  said  unto  Sarai,  Behold,  thy  maid  is  in 
thy  hand  ;  do  to  her  that  which  is  good  in  thine 
eyes.  And  Sarai  dealt  hardly  with  her,  and  she  fled 
from  her  face.  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  found 
her  by  a  fountain  of  water  in  the  wilderness,  by  the 
fountain  in  the  way  to  Shur.  And  he  said,  Hagar, 
Sarai's  handmaid,  whence  earnest  thou  ?  and  whither 
goest  thou?  And  she  said,  I  flee  from  the  face  of 
my  mistress  Sarai.  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  said 
unto  her,  Return  to  thy  mistress,  and  submit  thyself 
under  her  hands. 

And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  said  unto  her,  I  will 
greatly  multiply  thy  offspring,  that  it  shall  not  be 
numbered  for  multitude.  And  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  said  unto  her,  Behold,  thou  art  with  child, 
and  shalt  bear  a  son  ;  and  thou  shalt  call  his  name 
Ishmael,  because  the  Lord  hath  heard  thy  afflic- 
tion. And  he  shall  be  as  a  wild-ass  among  men ; 
his  hand  shall  be  against  every  man,  and  every 
man's  hand  against  him  ;  and  he  shall  dwell  over 
against  all  his  brethren. 

And  she  called  the  name  of  the  Lord  that  spake 
unto  her,  Thou  art  a  God  that  seeth  :  for  she  said, 
Have  I  even  here  looked  after  him  that  seeth  me? 
Wherefore  the  well  was  called  Beerlahai-roi  ;  behold, 


FIRST   STORY   OF   HAGAR   AND    ISHMAEL      113 

it  is  between  Kadesh  and  Bered.  [And  Hagar  bare 
Abram  a  son  :  and  Abram  called  the  name  of  his 
son,  which  Hagar  bare,  Ishmael.  And  Abram  was 
fourscore  and  six  years  old,  when  Hagar  bare  Ish- 
mael to  Abram.] 
1 


X 


THE  ELOHIST  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  COVENANT 

Chapter  xvii.  of  Genesis  is  an  extract,  little,  if 
at  all,  modified,  from  the  document  of  the  Elohist. 
It  contains  his  account  of  the  first  compact  with 
Abram,  or  Abraham,  and  is  clearly  distinguished 
from  the  other  by  its  didactic  and  matter-of-fact 
quality.  The  Elohist  was  much  given  to  exact 
forms  of  statement,  as  in  giving  the  age  of  per- 
sons, the  duration  of  periods  of  time,  and  the 
names  of  persons  and  places  referred  to.  His 
conception  of  the  covenant  was  of  a  promise  on 
the  part  of  God  —  Elohim,  or  El  Shaddai  —  to 
give  the  land  of  Abraham's  sojournings  to  his 
posterity,  and  to  protect  them  in  its  possession ; 
and  in  return  they  were  to  be  devoted  to  the 
exclusive  worship  of  this  God. 

The  practice  of  the  rite  of  circumcision  was  to 
be  the  token  of  fidelity  to  their  pledge.  The  prac- 
tice of  circumcision  was  not  original  with  the  He- 
brews, and  it  was  not  so  old  among  them  as  this 
story  would  imply,  but  they  were  the  first  to 
make  it  a  religious  rite,  and  they  adopted  it  as 
a  pledge  of  their  exclusiveness,  probably  because 

114 


ELOHIST  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  COVENANT   115 

they  brought  it  among  a  people  who  did  not  use 
it,  and  to  whom  it  may  have  been  repellent.  The 
Elohist  writer  was  connected  with  the  early  tem- 
ple service,  and  he  turned  the  covenant  with  Abra- 
ham to  account  to  give  a  special  sanction  to  the 
rite  of  circumcision,  just  as  he  had  used  the  story 
of  the  creation  to  consecrate  the  observance  of 
the  Sabbath,  which  had  become  an  equally  sacred 
requirement  in  his  eyes. 

While  there  was  a  slight  etymological  difference 
of  meaning  between  the  two  forms,  Ab-ram  and  Ab- 
raham, from  which  the  explanation  of  a  change  of 
name  was  evolved,  they  were  in  tradition  merely 
variations  in  the  designation  of  a  mythical  or  legen- 
dary personage,  one  of  which  finally  superseded 
the  other  and  came  into  exclusive  use.  The  same 
statement  will  apply  to  the  change  from  Sarai  to 
Sarah.  While  the  definite  promise  of  the  son 
Isaac  appears  here  first  in  the  compiler's  narra- 
tive, this  is  not  its  oldest  form.  Observe  the 
difference  in  which  the  general  promise  of  pos- 
terity is  received  here  and  in  the  ancient  version 
of  the  covenant  in  Chapter  xv.  There  we  are 
solemnly  assured,  "  he  believed  in  the  Lord," 
while  here  Abraham  appears  as  sceptically  laugh- 
ing at  the  idea  of  having  children  when  he  is  a 
hundred  years  old  and  his  wife  ninety. 


Il6  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

The  name  "Isaac"  for  the  promised  child  is 
derived  from  this  laugh.  The  name  seems  really 
to  have  been  adopted  into  the  patriarchal  legends 
as  a  link  between  the  remote  ancestor  of  all  the 
Semitic  nations  and  the  special  ancestor  of  the 
Israelites,  from  a  tradition  in  the  Beersheba 
region  of  an  ancient  tribe,  Isaak-el,  meaning 
"God  laughs,"  or  "laugh  of  God."  The  exact 
meaning  of  such  epithets  is  a  matter  of  infer- 
ence from  the  words  out  of  which  they  appear 
to  be  formed;  and  from  the  meaning  so  inferred, 
whether  exact  or  not,  the  stories  explaining  their 
origin  were  evolved.  Thus  it  happens  that  when 
two  or  more  such  stories  have  been  preserved 
they  are  apt  to  be  inconsistent.  If  they  were  not, 
the  coincidence  would  be  remarkable.  Some  sig- 
nificance may  have  been  attached  to  making  Abra- 
ham just  a  hundred  years  old  when  Isaac  was 
born.  In  a  vague,  general  way  in  the  older  story 
of  the  covenant  a  hundred  years  is  made  synon- 
ymous with  a  generation,  as  forty  years  was 
assumed  to  be  in  the  later  annals. 

[XVII] 

And  when  Abram  was  ninety  years  old  and  nine, 
the  Lord  appeared  to  Abram,  and  said  unto  him, 
I  am  God  Almighty  [El  Shaddai]  ;  walk  before  me, 


ELOHIST  ACCOUNT   OF  THE   COVENANT        1 1/ 

and  be  thou  perfect.  And  I  will  make  my  cove- 
nant between  me  and  thee,  and  will  multiply  thee 
exceedingly. 

And  Abram  fell  on  his  face ;  and  God  talked 
with  him,  saying,  As  for  me,  behold,'  my  covenant  is 
with  thee,  and  thou  shalt  be  the  father  of  a  multi- 
tude of  nations.  Neither  shall  thy  name  any  more 
be  called  Abram,  but  thy  name  shall  be  Abraham  ; 
for  the  father  of  a  multitude  of  nations  have  I  made 
thee.  And  I  will  make  thee  exceeding  fruitful, 
and  I  will  make  nations  of  thee,  and  kings  shall 
come  out  of  thee.  And  I  will  establish  my  covenant 
between  me  and  thee  and  thy  posterity  throughout 
their  generations  for  an  everlasting  covenant,  to  be 
a  God  unto  thee  and  to  thy  posterity.  And  I  will 
give  unto  thee,  and  to  thy  posterity,  the  land  of  thy 
sojournings,  all  the  land  of  Canaan,  for  an  everlast- 
ing possession ;  and  I  will  be  their  God. 

And  God  said  unto  Abraham,  And  as  for  thee, 
thou  shalt  keep  my  covenant,  thou,  and  thy  pos- 
terity throughout  their  generations.  This  is  my  cove- 
nant, which  ye  shall  keep,  between  me  and  you  and 
thy  posterity  ;  every  male  among  you  shall  be  cir- 
cumcised. And  ye  shall  be  circumcised  in  the  flesh 
of  your  foreskin  ;  and  it  shall  be  a  token  of  a  cove- 
nant betwixt  me  and  you.  And  he  that  is  eight 
days  old  shall  be  circumcised  among  you,  every 
male  throughout  your  generations,  he  that  is  born  in 
the  house,  or  bought  with  money  of  any  stranger, 
which  is  not  of  thy  offspring.  He  that  is  born  in  thy 
house,  and  he  that  is  bought  with  thy  money,  must 


Il8  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

needs  be  circumcised,  and  my  covenant  shall  be 
in  your  flesh  for  an  everlasting  covenant.  And  the 
uncircumcised  male  who  is  not  circumcised  in  the 
flesh  of  his  foreskin,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from 
his  people  ;  he  hath  broken  my  covenant. 

And  God  said  unto  Abraham,  As  for  Sarai  thy 
wife,  thou  shalt  not  call  her  name  Sarai,  but  Sarah 
shall  her  name  be.  And  I  will  bless  her,  and  more- 
over I  will  give  thee  a  son  of  her ;  yea,  I  will  bless 
her,  and  she  shall  be  a  mother  of  nations ;  kings  of 
people  shall  be  of  her.  Then  Abraham  fell  upon 
his  face,  and  laughed,  and  said  in  his  heart,  Shall 
a  child  be  born  unto  him  that  is  an  hundred  years 
old?  and  shall  Sarah,  that  is  ninety  years  old,  bear? 

And  Abraham  said  unto  God,  Oh  that  Ishmael 
might  live  before  thee  !  And  God  said,  Nay,  but 
Sarah  thy  wife  shall  bear  thee  a  son  ;  and  thou  shalt 
call  his  name  Isaac  ;  and  I  will  establish  my  cove- 
nant with  him  for  an  everlasting  covenant  for  his 
seed  after  him.  And  as  for  Ishmael,  I  have  heard 
thee ;  behold,  I  have  blessed  him,  and  will  make 
him  fruitful,  and  will  multiply  him  exceedingly ; 
twelve  princes  shall  he  beget,  and  I  will  make  him 
a  great  nation.  But  my  covenant  will  I  establish 
with  Isaac,  which  Sarah  shall  bear  unto  thee  at  this 
set  time  in  the  next  year. 

And  he  left  off  talking  with  him,  and  God  went 
up  from  Abraham.  And  Abraham  took  Ishmael  his 
son,  and  all  that  were  born  in  his  house,  and  all  that 
were  bought  with  his  money,  every  male  among  the 
men  of  Abraham's  house,  and  circumcised  the  flesh 


ELOHIST  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  COVENANT   119 

of  their  foreskin  in  the  selfsame  day,  as  God  had 
said  unto  him.  And  Abraham  was  ninety  years  old 
and  nine,  when  he  was  circumcised  in  the  flesh  of 
his  foreskin.  And  Ishmael  his  son  was  thirteen 
years  old,  when  he  was  circumcised  in  the  flesh  of 
his  foreskin.  In  the  selfsame  day  was  Abraham 
circumcised,  and  Ishmael  his  son.  And  all  the 
men  of  his  house,  those  born  in  the  house,  and 
those  bought  with  money  of  the  stranger,  were 
circumcised  with  him. 


XI 

ANOTHER    VERSION    OF    THE    PROMISE    OF    ISAAC 

Immediately  following,  in  the  first  part  of 
Chapter  xviii.,  we  have  the  Jehovist  version  of 
the  promise  of  the  birth  of  Isaac,  which  is  not 
only  older  than  the  other,  but  evidently  formed 
out  of  the  most  primitive  material.  In  substance 
and  quality,  in  the  simple  representation  of  "the 
Lord "  as  a  man  with  two  companions,  hospita- 
bly entertained  by  the  pastoral  patriarch,  and 
giving  his  assurances  as  one  person  to  another, 
we  have  evidence  of  the  myth  in  its  most  an- 
tique form ;  and  the  contrast  with  the  Elohist 
account  is  so  marked  that  the  efforts  of  learned 
men  to  "harmonize"  the  two  reflect  upon  the 
sanity  of  their  learning.  Here  it  is  Sarah  that 
laughs  at  the  absurdity  of  a  couple  so  "stricken 
in  age"  having  offspring,  and  thereby  furnishes 
the  derivation  of  the  name  "  Isaac." 

[XVI 1 1    1-15] 

And  the  Lord  appeared  unto  him  by  the  oaks  of 
Mamre,  as  he  sat  in  the  tent  door  in  the  heat  of  the 

120 


ANOTHER   VERSION   OF  THE   PROMISE  121 

day ;  and  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked,  and,  lo, 
three  men  stood  over  against  him  ;  and  when  he 
saw  them,  he  ran  to  meet  them  from  the  tent  door, 
and  bowed  himself  to  the  earth,  and  said,  My  lord, 
if  now  I  have  found  favour  in  thy  sight,  pass  not 
away,  I  pray  thee,  from  thy  servant ;  let  now  a  little 
water  be  fetched,  and  wash  your  feet,  and  rest  your- 
selves under  the  tree,  and  I  will  fetch  a  morsel  of 
bread,  and  comfort  ye  your  heart;  after  that  ye 
shall  pass  on,  forasmuch  as  ye  are  come  to  your 
servant.     And  they  said,  So  do,  as  thou  hast  said. 

And  Abraham  hastened  into  the  tent  unto  Sarah, 
and  said,  Make  ready  quickly  three  measures  of  fine 
meal,  knead  it,  and  make  cakes.  And  Abraham  ran 
unto  the  herd,  and  fetched  a  calf  tender  and  good, 
and  gave  it  unto  the  servant ;  and  he  hastened  to 
dress  it.  And  he  took  butter,  and  milk,  and  the 
calf  which  he  had  dressed,  and  set  it  before  them ; 
and  he  stood  by  them  under  the  tree,  and  they  did 
eat.  And  they  said  unto  him,  Where  is  Sarah  thy 
wife?  And  he  said,  Behold,  in  the  tent.  And  he 
said,  I  will  certainly  return  unto  thee  when  the  sea- 
son cometh  round;  and,  lo,  Sarah  thy  wife  shall 
have  a  son.  And  Sarah  heard  in  the  tent  door, 
which  was  behind  him. 

Now  Abraham  and  Sarah  were  old,  and  well 
stricken  in  age  ;  it  had  ceased  to  be  with  Sarah  after 
the  manner  of  women.  And  Sarah  laughed  within 
herself,  saying,  After  I  am  waxed  old  shall  I  have 
pleasure,  my  lord  being  old  also?  And  the  Lord 
said  unto  Abraham,  Wherefore  did  Sarah  laugh,  say- 


122  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

ing,  Shall  I  of  a  surety  bear  a  child,  who  am  old  ? 
Is  any  thing  too  hard  for  the  Lord?  At  the  set 
time  I  will  return  unto  thee,  when  the  season  cometh 
round,  and  Sarah  shall  have  a  son.  Then  Sarah  de- 
nied, saying,  I  laughed  not ;  for  she  was  afraid. 
And  he  said,  Nay ;  but  thou  didst  laugh. 


XII 

THE  CITIES  OF  THE    PLAIN  AND  THE   FAMILY  OF  LOT 

The  compiler  followed  this  version  of  the 
promise  of  Isaac  with  the  story  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  cities  of  the  Dead  Sea  plain  and  an 
account  of  the  family  of  Lot,  regarded  as  the 
progenitor  of  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites.  In 
this  passage  the  effect  of  the  compiler's  own 
hand  in  working  over  the  material  is  more  no- 
ticeable than  in  anything  that  precedes. 

The  narrative  consists  of  three  distinct  parts, 
and  the  manner  and  spirit  of  the  first  indicate 
that  it  had  a  later  origin  than  the  rest.  In  it 
the  menace  of  destruction  to  the  sinful  cities  is 
used  to  exhibit  Abraham  in  the  character  of  a 
mediator  between  God  and  man  to  save  the 
righteous  from  the  fate  decreed  to  the  wicked, 
and  "the  Lord"  is  represented  as  recognizing 
the  justice  of  his  plea  and  as  willing  to  endure 
the  wickedness  of  the  many  for  the  sake  of  the 
few  righteous.  This  formal  bit  of  instruction, 
and  the  reference  to  the  children  of  Abraham 
keeping  "the  way  of  the  Lord  to  do  justice  and 

123 


124  THE   MYTHS  OF  ISRAEL 

judgment,"  so  little  in  consonance  with  the  gen- 
eral tone  of  these  narratives,  suggest  a  rela- 
tively late  origin  for  this  passage,  which  may 
have  been  wrought  out  by  the  compiler  without 
obliterating  from  his  material  the  primitive  con- 
ception of  "the  Lord"  in  the  aspect  of  a  "man  ': 
conversing  familiarly  with  the  personification  of 
a  "great  and  mighty  nation." 

At  the  end  of  this  interview  "  the  Lord " 
disappears,  and  his  two  companions  proceed  as 
"  angels "  to  Sodom.  This  episode  of  the  visit 
of  the  "  angels "  to  rescue  the  family  of  Lot, 
and  of  the  destruction  of  the  doomed  cities, 
bears  the  distinct  characteristics  of  the  Jehovist 
writer  weaving  together  for  his  purposes  the 
traditions,  oral  or  written,  that  were  at  his 
command.  He  mingled  together  the  legend  of 
the  destruction  of  the  cities  by  fire  and  brim- 
stone, which  had  grown  out  of  the  weird  deso- 
lation and  the  evidences  of  ancient  conflagration 
in  that  region,  and  the  ethnic  myth  of  Lot  as 
the  nephew  of  Abraham  and  the  ancestor  of 
the  Moabites  and  Ammonites.  The  Jehovist 
took  a  gloomy  view  of  the  evil  tendency  of  the 
human  race  and  the  disposition  of  its  creator 
to  destroy  it,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  and 
in   his  use   of    old  tales   he  readily  accepted    the 


CITIES   OF  THE   PLAIN   AND   LOT'S   FAMILY      1 25 

peculiarly  anthropomorphic  idea  of  the  deity 
which  pervaded  them,  while  the  Elohist  was 
much  more  vague  in  his  references  to  the 
Almighty. 

The  picture  of  the  moral  condition  of  Sodom, 
which  is  incidentally  brought  out,  is  much  like 
that  of  Gibeah  in  the  Book  of  Judges,  and  the 
two  descriptions  were  not  far  from  contempo- 
raneous. The  morals  and  manners  suggested 
were  not  unfamiliar  to  the  early  writers  of  Is- 
rael in  their  own  country,  and  the  story  of 
Sodom  may  have  been  intended  to  convey  a 
lesson  and  a  warning  directly  to  their  own  peo- 
ple in  their  own  time.  As  the  scenery  and 
geological  peculiarities  about  the  "  Dead  Sea " 
gave  rise  to  the  legend  of  the  destruction  of  the 
cities,  so  doubtless  the  saline  deposits  in  columnar 
form  suggested  the  weird  touch  about  Lot's  wife, 
the  only  one  —  unreal  as  it  is  —  that  gives  any 
air  of  reality  to  such  a  person. 

The  brief  fragment  in  brackets  at  the  end  of 
this  passage  is  from  the  Elohist,  and  sums  up 
the  whole  story  in  his  characteristic  way,  so  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  imaginative  author  of 
the  other  document. 

What  follows,'  forming  the  third  part  of  this 
episode,   is  the   ethnic    story  in    its    oldest    form, 


126  THE    MYTHS    OF    ISRAEL 

derived  from  the  ancient  patriarchal  legends, 
from  which  the  fragment  about  the  drunken- 
ness of  Noah  and  the  curse  of  Canaan  was 
drawn.  It  has  the  peculiar  mythological  qual- 
ity of  those  old  tales.  A  relation  has  been 
traced  between  the  name  Lot  and  an  ancient 
Egyptian  designation  of  the  people  occupying 
the  territory  below  the  Jordan  Valley.  Doubt- 
less the  name  still  existed  in  tradition  in  the 
time  of  the  first  Hebrew  writers.  There  was 
no  doubt  of  the  kinship  between  the  tribes  of 
Israel  and  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites  of  that 
region,  or  Moab  and  Amnion,  as  they  were 
called.  But  a  keen  hostility  was  felt  toward 
them  on  account  of  old  conflicts  when  the  Isra- 
elites were  struggling  for  the  possession  of  the 
land  of  Canaan,  and  the  marauding  attacks 
to  which  they  continued  to  be  subject,  especially 
from  the  Ammonites  on  their  borders. 

On  account  of  this  state  of  feeling  the  makers 
of  the  ethnic  myths  would  not  allow  that  Moab 
and  Amnion  were  direct  descendants  of  their 
great  ancestor  Abraham,  and  not  only  set  them 
off  on  a  collateral  line,  but  gave  them  an  incestu- 
ous origin,  and  covered  the  name  of  Lot  and  his 
daughters  with  obloquy.  The  purely  mythologi- 
cal character  of  the  story  is  sufficiently  evident  in 


CITIES  OF  THE    PLAIN  AND    LOT'S   FAMILY       \2J 

the  entire  disregard  of  reality  or  probability  in  the 
gross  picture  it  presents.  The  phrase  "  unto  this 
day"  also  plainly  indicates  an  imaginative  dealing 
by  the  writer  with  a  remote  past.  The  grossness 
of  the  passage  is  much  relieved  when  we  consider 
that  it  was  not  to  be  understood  as  dealing  with 
persons  but  with  nations.  The  crude  simplicity 
of  primitive  expression  was  free  from  any  sense 
of  indecency,  but  it  would  have  been  impossible 
in  an  age  when  the  scene  pictured  would  excite 
special  aversion. 

[XVIII  16-XIX] 

And  the  men  rose  up  from  thence,  and  looked 
toward  Sodom ;  and  Abraham  went  with  them  to 
bring  them  on  the  way. 

And  the  Lord  said,  Shall  I  hide  from  Abraham 
that  which  I  do ;  seeing  that  Abraham  shall  surely 
become  a  great  and  mighty  nation,  and  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed  in  him?  For  I 
have  known  him,  to  the  end  that  he  may  command 
his  children  and  his  household  after  him,  that  they 
may  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  righteousness 
and  justice ;  to  the  end  that  the  Lord  may  bring 
upon  Abraham  that  which  he  hath  spoken  of  him. 

And  the  Lord  said,  Because  the  cry  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  is  great,  and  because  their  sin  is  very 
grievous ;  I  will  go  down  now,  and  see  whether 
they  have  done  altogether  according  to  the  cry  of 


[28  THE    MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

it,  which  is  come  unto  me;  and  if  not,  I  will  know. 
And  the  men  turned  from  thence,  and  went  toward 
Sodom,  but  Abraham  stood  yet  before  the  Lord. 
And  Abraham  drew  near,  and  said,  Wilt  thou 
consume  the  righteous  with  the  wicked?  Perad- 
venture  there  be  fifty  righteous  within  the  city : 
wilt  thou  consume  and  not  spare  the  place  for  the 
fifty  righteous  that  are  therein?  That  be  far  from 
thee  to  do  after  this  manner,  to  slay  the  righteous 
with  the  wicked,  that  so  the  righteous  should  be  as 
the  wicked  ;  that  be  far  from  thee  :  shall  not  the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?  And  the  Lord 
said,  If  I  find  in  Sodom  fifty  righteous  within  the 
city,  then  I  will  spare  all  the  place  for  their  sake. 

And  Abraham  answered  and  said,  Behold  now,  I 
have  taken  upon  me  to  speak  unto  the  Lord,  which 
am  but  dust  and  ashes ;  peradventure  there  shall 
lack  five  of  the  fifty  righteous  :  wilt  thou  destroy 
all  the  city  for  lack  of  five?  And  he  said,  I  will 
not  destroy  it,  if  I  find  there  forty  and  five.  And 
he  spake  unto  him  yet  again,  and  said,  Peradvent- 
ure there  shall  be  forty  found  there.  And  he  said, 
1  will  not  do  it  for  the  forty's  sake.  And  he  said,  Oh 
let  not  the  Lord  be  angry,  and  I  will  speak ;  perad- 
venture there  shall  thirty  be  found  there.  And  he 
said,  I  will  not  do  it,  if  I  find  thirty  there.  And 
he  said,  Behold  now,  I  have  taken  upon  me  to 
speak  unto  the  Lord  ;  peradventure  there  shall  be 
twenty  found  there.  And  he  said,  I  will  not  destroy 
it  for  the  twenty's  sake.  And  he  said,  Oh  let  not 
the  Lord  be  angry,  and  I  will    speak  yet  but  this 


CITIES  OF  THE  PLAIN  AND  LOT'S   FAMILY      1 29 

once  ;  peradventure  ten  shall  be  found  there.     And 
he  said,  I  will  not  destroy  it  for  the  ten's  sake. 

And  the  Lord  went  his  way,  as  soon  as  he  had 
left  communing  with  Abraham,  and  Abraham  re- 
turned unto  his  place. 

And  the  two  angels  came  to  Sodom  at  even ;  and 
Lot  sat  in  the  gate  of  Sodom,  and  Lot  saw  them, 
and  rose  up  to  meet  them  ;  and  he  bowed  himself 
with  his  face  to  the  earth  ;  and  he  said,  Behold  now 
my  lords,  turn  aside,  I  pray  you,  into  your  servant's 
house,  and  tarry  all  night,  and  wash  your  feet,  and 
ye  shall  rise  up  early,  and  go  on  your  way.  And 
they  said,  Nay ;  but  we  will  abide  in  the  street  all 
night.  And  he  urged  them  greatly;  and  they 
turned  in  unto  him,  and  entered  into  his  house ; 
and  he  made  them  a  feast,  and  did  bake  unleavened 
bread,  and  they  did  eat. 

But  before  they  lay  down,  the  men  of  the  city, 
even  the  men  of  Sodom,  compassed  the  house  round, 
both  young  and  old,  all  the  people  from  every  quar- 
ter ;  and  they  called  unto  Lot,  and  said  unto  him, 
Where  are  the  men  which  came  in  to  thee  this 
night  ?  Bring  them  out  unto  us,  that  we  may  know 
them. 

And  Lot  went  out  unto  them  to  the  door,  and 
shut  the  door  after  him.  And  he  said,  I  pray  you, 
my  brethren,  do  not  so  wickedly.  Behold  now,  I 
have  two  daughters  which  have  not  known  man  ;  let 
me,  I  pray  you,  bring  them  out  unto  you,  and  do  ye 
to  them  as  is  good  in  your  eyes ;  only  unto  these 

K 


13O  THE    MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

men  do  nothing  ;  forasmuch  as  they  are  come  under 
the  shadow  of  my  roof. 

And  they  said,  Stand  back.  And  they  said,  This 
one  fellow  came  in  to  sojourn,  and  he  will  needs  be 
a  judge  ;  now  will  we  deal  worse  with  thee,  than  with 
them.  And  they  pressed  sore  upon  the  man,  even 
Lot,  and  drew  near  to  break  the  door.  But  the  men 
put  forth  their  hand,  and  brought  Lot  into  the  house 
to  them,  and  shut  to  the  door.  And  they  smote  the 
men  that  were  at  the  door  of  the  house  with  blind- 
ness, both  small  and  great,  so  that  they  wearied 
themselves  to  find  the  door. 

And  the  men  said  unto  Lot,  Hast  thou  here  any 
relative  besides?  Thy  sons,  and  thy  daughters, 
and  whomsoever  thou  hast  in  the  city,  bring 
them  out  of  the  place,  for  we  will  destroy  this 
place,  because  the  cry  of  them  is  waxen  great 
before  the  Lord  ;  and  the  Lord  hath  sent  us  to 
destroy  it.  And  Lot  went  out,  and  spake  unto  his 
sons  in  law,  which  married  his  daughters,  and  said, 
Up,  get  you  out  of  this  place ;  for  the  Lord  will 
destroy  the  city.  But  he  seemed  unto  his  sons  in 
law  as  one  that  mocked. 

And  when  the  morning  arose,  then  the  angels 
hastened  Lot,  saying,  Arise,  take  thy  wife,  and  thy 
two  daughters  which  are  here ;  lest  thou  be  con- 
sumed in  the  iniquity  of  the  city.  But  he  lingered  ; 
and  the  men  laid  hold  upon  his  hand,  and  upon 
the  hand  of  his  wife,  and  upon  the  hand  of  his  two 
daughters,  the  Lord  being  merciful  unto  him,  and 
they  brought  him  forth,  and  set  him  without  the  city. 


CITIES  OF  THE  PLAIN  AND   LOT'S    FAMILY       131 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  they  had  brought  them 
forth  abroad,  that  he  said,  Escape  for  thy  life  ;  look 
not  behind  thee,  neither  stay  thou  in  all  the  Plain  ; 
escape  to  the  mountain,  lest  thou  be  consumed. 
And  Lot  said  unto  them,  Oh,  not  so,  my  lord ; 
behold  now,  thy  servant  hath  found  grace  in  thy 
sight,  and  thou  hast  magnified  thy  mercy,  which 
thou  hast  shewed  unto  me  in  saving  my  life ;  and 
I  cannot  escape  to  the  mountain,  lest  evil  overtake 
me,  and  I  die.  Behold  now,  this  city  is  near  to  flee 
unto,  and  it  is  a  little  one.  Oh,  let  me  escape 
thither,  (is  it  not  a  little  one?)  and  my  soul  shall 
live.  And  he  said  unto  him,  See,  I  have  accepted 
thee  concerning  this  thing  also,  that  I  will  not  over- 
throw the  city  of  which  thou  hast  spoken.  Haste 
thee,  escape  thither ;  for  I  cannot  do  any  thing  till 
thou  be  come  thither.  Therefore  the  name  of  the 
city  was  called  Zoar. 

The  sun  was  risen  upon  the  earth  when  Lot  came 
unto  Zoar.  Then  the  Lord  rained  upon  Sodom 
and  upon  Gomorrah  brimstone  and  fire  from  the 
Lord  out  of  heaven ;  and  he  overthrew  those 
cities,  and  all  the  Plain,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  cities,  and  that  which  grew  upon  the  ground. 
But  his  wife  looked  back  from  behind  him,  and  she 
became  a  pillar  of  salt. 

And  Abraham  gat  up  early  in  the  morning  to  the 
place  where  he  had  stood  before  the  Lord  ;  and  he 
looked  toward  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  toward 
all  the  land  of  the  Plain,  and  beheld,  and,  lo,  the 
smoke  of  the  land  went  up  as  the  smoke  of  a  furnace. 


132  THE   MYTHS    OF    ISRAEL 

[And  it  came  to  pass,  when  God  destroyed  the 
cities  of  the  Plain,  that  God  remembered  Abraham, 
and  sent  Lot  out  of  the  midst  of  the  overthrow, 
when  he  overthrew  the  cities  in  the  which  Lot  dwelt.] 

[And  Lot  went  up  out  of  Zoar,  and  dwelt  in  the 
mountain,  and  his  two  daughters  with  him,  for  he 
feared  to  dwell  in  Zoar ;  and  he  dwelt  in  a  cave,  he 
and  his  two  daughters.  And  the  firstborn  said  unto 
the  younger,  Our  father  is  old,  and  there  is  not 
a  man  in  the  land  to  come  in  unto  us  after  the 
manner  of  all  the  earth ;  come,  let  us  make  our 
father  drink  wine,  and  we  will  lie  with  him,  that  we 
may  preserve  the  family  of  our  father. 

And  they  made  their  father  drink  wine  that  night ; 
and  the  firstborn  went  in,  and  lay  with  her  father, 
and  he  knew  not  when  she  lay  down,  nor  when  she 
arose.  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  morrow,  that 
the  firstborn  said  unto  the  younger,  Behold,  I  lay 
yesternight  with  my  father ;  let  us  make  him  drink 
wine  this  night  also,  and  go  thou  in,  and  lie  with 
him,  that  we  may  preserve  offspring  of  our  father. 
And  they  made  their  father  drink  wine  that  night 
also  ;  and  the  younger  arose,  and  lay  with  him,  and 
he  knew  not  when  she  lay  down,  nor  when  she  arose. 

Thus  were  both  the  daughters  of  Lot  with  child 
by  their  father.  And  the  firstborn  bare  a  son,  and 
called  his  name  Moab ;  the  same  is  the  father  of 
the  Moabites  unto  this  day.  And  the  younger,  she 
also  bare  a  son,  and  called  his  name  Ben-ammi ;  the 
same  is  the  father  of  the  children  of  Ammon  unto 
this  day.] 


XIII 

ABRAHAM    AND    ABIMELECH 

The  compiler  appears  to  have  had  in  his  mate- 
rial two  episodes,  associating  Abraham  with  a  Phi- 
listine king  in  the  South,  which  were  contained  in 
neither  of  his  two  main  documents.  One  of  these 
he  introduced  immediately  after  the  story  of  the 
cities  of  the  plain  and  the  family  of  Lot,  where 
it  now  stands  as  Chapter  xx.  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  and  the  other  he  appended  incongru- 
ously to  the  second  version  of  the  story  of  Hagar, 
where  it  constitutes  the  last  part  of  Chapter  xxi. 
There  are  traces  of  material  in  other  parts  of  the 
book  from  what  appears  to  be  the  same  source. 
This  material  is  designated  by  some  critics  as 
that  of  the  "second  Elohist,"  but  it  appears  only 
in  fragments  and  is  older  rather  than  later  than 
the  rest.  It  cannot  be  attributed  to  any  particular 
writer  or  production,  but  was  apparently  drawn 
from  the  floating  mass  of  primitive  story. 

The  first  episode  with  Abimelech  is  introduced 
by  the  compiler  with  the  vague  statement,  "  And 
Abraham  journeyed  from  thence  toward  the  land 

i33 


134  THE   MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

of  the  South."  The  account  of  the  relations  of 
Sarah  and  the  King  of  Gerar  is  an  obvious  vari- 
ant of  that  in  Chapter  xii.  in  regard  to  Sarah 
and  Pharaoh ;  and  it  appears  still  more  incongru- 
ous in  this  place  from  the  fact  that  Sarah  has 
already  been  represented  as  ninety  years  old, 
and  as  treating  with  derision  the  idea  that  she 
was  capable  of  having  children  at  that  age.  The 
story  has  no  chronological  relation,  however,  to 
other  events,  save  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
compiler's  narrative. 

The  explanatory  sentence  at  the  end,  in  brack- 
ets, is  apparently  the  compiler's  own,  and  he 
seems  to  have  misconceived  the  nature  of  the 
penalty  inflicted  upon  Abimelech  and  his  people, 
which  was  evidently  a  general  malady,  or  impo- 
tence, and  not  merely  a  barrenness  of  women. 
The  story  reflects  again  the  moral  ideas  of  the 
time  of  the  writer.  Abraham  is  represented  as 
seriously  telling  Abimelech  that  Sarah  was  the 
daughter  of  his  father,  though  at  the  end  of 
Chapter  xi.  she  is  spoken  of  as  Terah's  daughter- 
in-law,  not  his  daughter.  This  is  incidental  evi- 
dence, if  any  were  needed,  of  diversity  of  origin 
in  the  two  statements.  The  marriage  of  half- 
brothers  and  sisters,  non-uterine  in  the  relation- 
ship, was  not  regarded  as  illegitimate  at  the  time 


ABRAHAM   AND   ABIMELECH  1 35 

of  David  and  later,  though  finally  interdicted  in 
the  Levitical  law.  It  is  to  be  observed  that 
Abraham,  in  explaining  his  migration  from  his 
own  country,  says  that  God  caused  him  to  wander 
from  his  father's  house,  and  there  is  no  intima- 
tion of  what  is  called  his  "vocation."  In  fact, 
this  older  material  always  appears  to  be  devoid 
of  the  religious  quality  of  the  later. 

[XX] 

And  Abraham  journeyed  from  thence  toward  the 
land  of  the  South,  and  dwelt  between  Kadesh  and 
Shur;  and  he  sojourned  in  Gerar.  And  Abraham 
said  of  Sarah  his  wife,  She  is  my  sister ;  and  Abime- 
lech  king  of  Gerar  sent,  and  took  Sarah.  But  God 
came  to  Abimelech  in  a  dream  of  the  nidit,  and 
said  to  him,  Behold,  thou  art  but  a  dead  man,  be- 
cause of  the  woman  which  thou  hast  taken  ;  for  she 
is  a  man's  wife.  Now  Abimelech  had  not  come  near 
her ;  and  he  said,  Lord,  wilt  thou  slay  even  a  right- 
eous nation?  Said  he  not  himself  unto  me,  She  is 
my  sister?  and  she,  even  she  herself  said,  He  is  my 
brother.  In  the  integrity  of  my  heart  and  the  inno- 
cency  of  my  hands  have  I  done  this.  And  God  said 
unto  him  in  the  dream,  Yea,  I  know  that  in  the  in- 
tegrity of  thy  heart  thou  hast  done  this,  and  I  also 
withheld  thee  from  sinning  against  me ;  therefore 
suffered  I  thee  not  to  touch  her.  Now  therefore 
restore  the  man's  wife ;  for  he  is  a  prophet,  and  he 


136  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

shall  pray  for  thee,  and  thou  shalt  live ;  and  if  thou 
restore  her  not,  know  thou  that  thou  shalt  surely  die, 
thou,  and  all  that  are  thine. 

And  Abimelech  rose  early  in  the  morning,  and 
called  all  his  servants,  and  told  all  these  things  in 
their  ears ;  and  the  men  were  sore  afraid.  Then 
Abimelech  called  Abraham,  and  said  unto  him,  What 
hast  thou  done  unto  us?  and  wherein  have  I  sinned 
against  thee,  that  thou  hast  brought  on  me  and  on 
my  kingdom  a  great  sin  ?  Thou  hast  done  deeds  unto 
me  that  ought  not  to  be  done.  And  Abimelech  said 
unto  Abraham,  What  sawest  thou,  that  thou  hast 
done  this  thing?  And  Abraham  said,  Because  I 
thought,  Surely  the  fear  of  God  is  not  in  this  place ; 
and  they  will  slay  me  for  my  wife's  sake.  And  more- 
over she  is  indeed  my  sister,  the  daughter  of  my 
father,  but  not  the  daughter  of  my  mother,  and  she 
became  my  wife  ;  and  it  came  to  pass,  when  God 
caused  me  to  wander  from  my  father's  house,  that 
I  said  unto  her,  This  is  thy  kindness  which  thou 
shalt  shew  unto  me ;  at  every  place  whither  we  shall 
come,  say  of  me,  He  is  my  brother. 

And  Abimelech  took  sheep  and  oxen,  and  men- 
servants  and  womenservants,  and  gave  them  unto 
Abraham,  and  restored  him  Sarah  his  wife.  And 
Abimelech  said,  Behold,  my  land  is  before  thee  j 
dwell  where  it  pleaseth  thee.  And  unto  Sarah  he 
said,  Behold,  I  have  given  thy  brother  a  thousand 
pieces  of  silver ;  behold,  it  is  for  thee  a  covering  of 
the  eyes  to  all  that  are  with  thee,  and  in  respect  of 
all   thou   art   righted.    And  Abraham  prayed  unto 


ABRAHAM   AND   ABIMELECH  137 

God  ;  and  God  healed  Abimelech,  and  his  wife,  and 
his  maidservants ;  and  they  bare  children.  [For 
the  Lord  had  fast  closed  up  all  the  wombs  of  the 
house  of  Abimelech,  because  of  Sarah,  Abraham's 
wife.] 


XIV 

SECOND    STORY    OF    HAGAR    AND    HER    SON 

The  opening  statement  of  Genesis  xxi.,  which 
is  put  in  brackets  below,  relating  to  the  birth  of 
Isaac,  is  from  the  Elohist  document  and  immedi- 
ately sequent  upon  the  promise  in  Chapter  xvii. 
The  repetition  in  the  first  sentence  may  be  due 
to  the  compiler  starting  off  with  his  own  language 
and  then  taking  in  the  extract  without  change. 
What  follows  is  mainly  a  version  of  the  ethnic 
myth  of  Ishmael,  as  the  ancestor  of  the  people  of 
the  desert,  quite  different  from  that  of  the  Jeho- 
vist  in  Chapter  xvi.  It  is  regarded  as  belong- 
ing to  the  material  which  has  been  infelicitously 
called  the  "  second  Elohist  document,"  but  which 
is  merely  foreign  to  the  two  main  sources  from 
which  the  compiler  drew. 

It  begins  with  still  another  explanation  of  the 
meaning  of  the  name  "Isaac"  (laughter),  —  the 
general  merriment  that  such  an  old  person  as 
Sarah  should  have  a  child.  But  the  main  purpose 
of  the  story  is  to  account  for  the  alienation  and 
separation    of    the    earlier    progeny    of    Abraham 

138 


SECOND    STORY   OF   HAGAR   AND   HER   SON     139 

from  the  later.  The  Jehovist  accounted  for  this 
by  the  expulsion  of  the  Egyptian  mother  before 
the  birth  of  the  child,  on  account  of  her  show  of 
pride  to  the  vexation  of  Sarah,  while  this  writer 
attributed  it  to  the  scorn  of  the  boy  himself 
exhibited  at  Isaac's  weaning,  and  to  Sarah's  jeal- 
ousy of  his  becoming  co-heir  with  her  offspring. 
Abraham  appears  more  sympathetic  in  this  story 
than  in  the  other,  though  his  alleged  treatment 
of  the  bondwoman  and  her  child  would  be  re- 
garded in  any  but  a  mythical  tale  as  cruel,  since 
it  would  mean  certain  death  by  starvation  in  the 
wilderness  for  mother  and  child. 

It  is  noticeable  that  in  this  version  of  the  story 
the  name  of  Ishmael  is  not  mentioned,  though  the 
phrase  derived  from  it,  "God  heard,"  is  twice 
used.  Where  Ishmael  is  mentioned  in  the  real 
Elohist  material  there  is  no  intimation  at  all  of 
an  alienation  from  his  father  or  mother,  or  of  his 
expulsion  to  the  wilderness.  From  that  material 
it  would  appear  that  Hagar's  son  must  have  been 
a  lad  of  about  fifteen  at  the  time  of  Isaac's  wean- 
ing, while  the  story  under  consideration  treats  him 
as  still  a  child  whom  his  mother  carries  upon  her 
shoulder  and  casts  under  a  shrub.  It  also  dis- 
poses of  him  finally  as  dwelling  in  the  wilderness 
of  Pharan  with  a  wife  taken  for  him  out  of  Egypt 


T40  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

by  his  mother,  though  we  find  him  again  in  Chap- 
ter xxv.  joining  with  Isaac  in  the  burial  of  his 
father.  The  latter  incident  is  evidently  taken 
from  the  version  of  the  story  which  did  not  recog- 
nize the  expulsion  of  the  Ishmaelites  from  the 
house  of  Abraham.  The  purely  mythical  quality 
of  the  following  passage  seems  sufficiently  mani- 
fest in  its  lack  of  all  relation  to  reality  or  proba- 
bility. It  is  also  devoid  of  the  religious  trace 
which  characterizes  both  the  Jehovist  and  Elohist 
writers,  except  as  an  allegorical  representation  of 
the  division  of  the  people  destined  to  divine  favor 
from  others  of  the  same  blood  who  were  to  be 
excluded  from  the  heritage. 

[XXI     I-2I] 

[And  the  LORD  visited  Sarah  as  he  had  said,  and 
the  Lord  did  unto  Sarah  as  he  had  spoken.  And 
Sarah  conceived,  and  bare  Abraham  a  son  in  his  old 
age,  at  the  set  time  of  which  God  had  spoken  to 
him.  And  Abraham  called  the  name  of  his  son  that 
was  born  unto  him,  whom  Sarah  bare  to  him,  Isaac. 
And  Abraham  circumcised  his  son  Isaac  when  he 
was  eight  days  old,  as  God  had  commanded  him. 
And  Abraham  was  an  hundred  years  old,  when  his 
son  Isaac  was  born  unto  him.] 

And  Sarah  said,  God  hath  made  me  to  laugh  ; 
every  one  that  heareth  will  laugh  with   me.      And 


SECOND   STORY   OF   HAGAR   AND   HER   SON     141 

she  said,  Who  would  have  said  unto  Abraham,  that 
Sarah  should  give  children  suck?  for  I  have  borne 
him  a  son  in  his  old  age. 

And  the  child  grew,  and  was  weaned  ;  and  Abra- 
ham made  a  great  feast  on  the  day  that  Isaac  was 
weaned.  And  Sarah  saw  the  son  of  Hagar  the 
Egyptian,  which  she  had  borne  unto  Abraham, 
mocking.  Wherefore  she  said  unto  Abraham,  Cast 
out  this  bondwoman  and  her  son,  for  the  son  of 
this  bondwoman  shall  not  be  heir  with  my  son,  even 
with  Isaac. 

And  the  thing  was  very  grievous  in  Abraham's 
sight  on  account  of  his  son.  And  God  said  unto 
Abraham,  Let  it  not  be  grievous  in  thy  sight  because 
of  the  lad,  and  because  of  thy  bondwoman ;  in  all 
that  Sarah  saith  unto  thee,  hearken  unto  her  voice, 
for  in  Isaac  shall  thy  progeny  be  called.  And  also 
of  the  son  of  the  bondwoman  will  I  make  a  nation, 
because  he  is  thy  offspring. 

And  Abraham  rose  up  early  in  the  morning,  and 
took  bread  and  a  bottle  of  water,  and  gave  it  unto 
Hagar,  putting  it  on  her  shoulder,  and  the  child, 
and  sent  her  away  ;  and  she  departed,  and  wandered 
in  the  wilderness  of  Beersheba.  And  the  water  in 
the  bottle  was  spent,  and  she  cast  the  child  under 
one  of  the  shrubs.  And  she  went,  and  sat  her 
down  over  against  him  a  good  way  off,  as  it  were  a 
bowshot ;  for  she  said,  Let  me  not  look  upon  the 
death  of  the  child.  And  she  sat  over  against  him, 
and  lifted  up  her  voice,  and  wept. 

And  God  heard  the  voice  of  the  lad ;  and  the 


142  THE    MYTHS    OF    ISRAEL 

angel  of  God  called  to  Hagar  out  of  heaven,  and 
said  unto  her,  What  aileth  thee,  Hagar?  fear  not; 
for  God  hath  heard  the  voice  of  the  lad  where  he  is. 
Arise,  lift  up  the  lad,  and  hold  him  in  thine  hand  ; 
for  I  will  make  him  a  great  nation.  And  God 
opened  her  eyes,  and  she  saw  a  well  of  water ;  and 
she  went,  and  filled  the  bottle  with  water,  and  gave 
the  lad  drink. 

And  God  was  with  the  lad,  and  he  grew ;  and  he 
dwelt  in  the  wilderness,  and  became  an  archer. 
And  he  dwelt  in  the  wilderness  of  Pharan  ;  and  his 
mother  took  him  a  wife  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt. 


XV 

COMPACT    BETWEEN    ABRAHAM    AND    ABIMELECH 

The  second  Abimelech  episode  follows  here 
quite  irrelevantly,  the  abrupt  transition  being 
made  by  the  compiler  with  the  words,  "  and  it 
came  to  pass  at  that  time,"  as  the  other  story  was 
brought  in  with  the  statement  that  "  Abraham 
journeyed  thence,"  etc.  There  had  long  been  an 
ancient  fane  at  Beersheba,  on  the  southern  border 
of  the  land  of  Israel,  and  the  purpose  of  the  origi- 
nal narrator  was  to  account  for  its  possession, 
and  to  connect  its  first  consecration  with  Abra- 
ham, who  was  said  to  have  planted  the  tamarisk 
tree  which  doubtless  still  marked  the  site  of  the 
old  place  of  worship. 

Beersheba  meant  the  seven  wells  or  the  well  of 
seven,  but  a  mystic  significance  was  attached  to 
the  number  seven,  and  it  was  associated  with 
treaties  and  solemn  oaths,  and  the  name  was  ac- 
counted for  in  the  story  by  an  agreement  between 
Abraham  and  Abimelech  for  the  possession  of  the 
place  by  the  former,  witnessed  by  the  gift  of  seven 
ewe  lambs.     This  story  probably  originated  at  a 

H3 


144  THE   MYTHS  OF  ISRAEL 

time  of  peace  with  the  Philistines,  after  the  con- 
quests of  David,  and  was  incidently  meant  to 
cement  friendly  relations  with  those  people  by 
reference  to  an  ancient  compact  of  amity.  The 
original  Elohist  writer,  or,  we  may  say,  the  real 
Elohist,  always  fixes  the  residence  of  Abraham  at 
Hebron.  It  was  the  Jehovist,  or  the  writer  from 
whom  his  material  was  drawn,  that  associated  him 
with  Beersheba.  The  compiler,  a  "Jehovist"  so 
far  as  the  use  of  the  name  of  the  deity  was  con- 
cerned, and  a  Judean,  writing  after  the  Northern 
Kingdom  had  passed  away,  produced  much  incon- 
gruity in  his  narrative  by  trying  to  retain  both 
traditions  as  to  Abraham's  place  of  residence. 

[XXI    22-34] 

And  it  came  to  pass  at  that  time,  that  Abimelech 
and  Phicol  the  captain  of  his  host  spake  unto  Abra- 
ham, saying,  God  is  with  thee  in  all  that  thou  doest ; 
now  therefore  swear  unto  me  here  by  God  that  thou 
wilt  not  deal  falsely  with  me,  nor  with  my  son,  nor 
with  my  son's  son  ;  but  according  to  the  kindness 
that  I  have  done  unto  thee,  thou  shalt  do  unto  me, 
and  to  the  land  wherein  thou  hast  sojourned.  And 
Abraham  said,  I  will  swear. 

And  Abraham  reproved  Abimelech  because  of 
the  well  of  water,  which  Abimelech's  servants  had 
violently  taken  away.     And  Abimelech  said,  I  know 


COMPACT  OF  ABRAHAM   AND   ABIMELECH     145 

not  who  hath  done  this  thing ;  neither  didst  thou 
tell  me,  neither  yet  heard  I  of  it,  but  to-day.  And 
Abraham  took  sheep  and  oxen,  and  gave  them  unto 
Abimelech  ;  and  they  two  made  a  covenant.  And 
Abraham  set  seven  ewe  lambs  of  the  flock  by  them- 
selves. And  Abimelech  said  unto  Abraham,  What 
mean  these  seven  ewe  lambs  which  thou  hast  set 
by  themselves?  And  he  said,  These  seven  ewe 
lambs  shalt  thou  take  of  my  hand,  that  it  may  be 
a  witness  unto  me,  that  I  have  digged  this  well. 
Wherefore  he  called  that  place  Beersheba ;  be- 
cause there  they  sware  both  of  them. 

So  they  made  a  covenant  at  Beersheba ;  and 
Abimelech  rose  up,  and  Phicol  the  captain  of  his 
host,  and  they  returned  into  the  land  of  the  Philis- 
tines. And  Abraham  planted  a  tamarisk  tree  in 
Beersheba,  and  called  there  on  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  the  Everlasting  God.  And  Abraham  so- 
journed in  the  land  of  the  Philistines  many  days. 


XVI 

THE    STORY    OF    OFFERING    ISAAC 

The  material  which  forms  the  basis  of  the  ethi- 
cal episode  in  Chapter  xxii.  is  as  foreign  to  the 
main  substance  of  the  compiler's  narrative  as  the 
warlike  episode  in  Chapter  xiv.  The  aspect  in 
which  it  presents  the  aged  patriarch,  wandering 
for  three  days  across  the  country  with  an  ass 
laden  with  wood,  and  his  child  and  two  attendants, 
is  in  the  broadest  contrast  with  the  warrior  chieftain 
sweeping  through  the  length  of  the  land  in  pur- 
suit of  invading  armies.  The  difference  is  due 
to  the  diversity  of  purpose  in  the  two  tales  and 
furnishes  the  best  evidence  of  the  allegorical  char- 
acter of  both. 

This  story,  written  after  the  temple  had  been 
established  on  Mount  Moriah,  and  when  one  of 
the  evil  tendencies  against  which  its  teachers  still 
had  to  strive  was  the  sacrifice  of  children  to  the 
deity  of  whom  the  people  stood  in  so  much  dread, 
had  the  double  purpose  of  carrying  the  consecra- 
tion of  the  "Mount  of  the  Lord"  back  to  Abra- 
ham, and   of    sanctifying  the   substitution   of  the 

146 


THE   STORY   OF   OFFERING  ISAAC  1 47 

firstlings  of  the  flock  for  the  first-born  of  the 
family  as  a  burnt  offering.  The  ancient  offering 
of  the  first-born  among  all  the  people  of  that 
region  to  their  gods,  which  seems  to  us  so  bar- 
barous, merely  testifies  to  the  terrible  character 
of  their  conceptions  of  the  deity  and  the  awful 
fear  under  which  they  performed  their  acts  of 
worship.  While  human  sacrifice  excited  an  in- 
tense aversion  in  the  Hebrews,  they  were  not  free 
from  the  sentiments  which  inspired  it,  and  com- 
paratively late  in  the  history  of  the  Kingdoms 
they  were  liable  to  lapse  into  this  most  appalling 
rite  of  their  "heathen"  neighbors.  While  the 
modern  spirit  revolts  even  against  the  bloody 
sacrifice  and  burnt  offering  of  animals  as  a  means 
of  worship,  it  was  surely  a  beneficent  substitute 
for  what  it  displaced. 

This  simple  story  of  Abraham  about  to  offer 
Isaac  at  God's  command  and  being  stayed  by  the 
"angel,"  so  completely  in  the  ancient  Hebrew 
manner  of  conveying  a  lesson,  was  calculated  to 
give  an  impressive  sanction  to  animal  sacrifice  and 
to  the  prohibition  of  human  sacrifice.  The  main 
story,  comprising  the  first  section  of  the  passage 
below,  is  of  the  original  material,  introduced  by 
the  compiler  with  the  familiar  formula,  "  and  it 
came  to  pass  after  these  things,"  and  was  perhaps 


148  THE   MYTHS    OF   ISRAEL 

revised  by  him  in  the  transcription.  It  is  the 
compiler  himself  who  takes  occasion  to  connect 
with  the  story  a  repetition  of  the  promise  to  Abra- 
ham as  a  reward  for  his  obedience.  He  also  as- 
sumes that  Abraham  was  dwelling  then  at 
Beersheba,  which  does  not  so  appear  in  the 
story  itself. 

This  passage  contains  another  significant  ex- 
ample of  the  use  of  the  word  "  maleak,"  of 
which  the  translation  through  the  Greek  of 
"angel"  is  apt  to  be  misleading.  It  appears 
distinctly  as  an  embodiment  or  personification  of 
the  deity  himself,  and  even  when  it  is  repre- 
sented as  a  separate  person,  or  messenger,  it 
seems  to  be  an  added  or  multiplied  embodiment, 
a  vestige  of  the  polytheistic  notion  of  the  Elo- 
him  and  Beni-elohim  (Sons  of  God). 

The  ethnographic  fragment  at  the  end  of  the 
chapter  relates  back  to  the  close  of  Chapter  xi., 
and  prepares  the  way  for  the  coming  story  of 
Rebekah.  It  is  curious  to  observe  in  it  the 
common  system  of  twelve  tribes,  of  which  four 
are  of  inferior  blood,  as  the  offspring  of  concu- 
bines. The  names  are  mostly  those  of  places, 
including  that  of  Nahor,  and  the  compiler 
brought  in  the  fragment  with  the  improbable 
statement  that  "  it  was  told    to    Abraham "  ;   but 


THE   STORY   OF   OFFERING   ISAAC  1 49 

when  we  accept  the  mythical  meaning  of  these 
representations  they  have  no  proper  relation  to 
probability. 

[XXII] 

And  it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,  that  God 
did  prove  Abraham,  and  said  unto  him,  Abraham  ! 
And  he  said,  Here  am  I.  And  he  said,  Take  now 
thy  son,  thine  only  son,  whom  thou  lovest,  even 
Isaac,  and  get  thee  into  the  land  of  Moriah  ;  and 
offer  him  there  for  a  burnt  offering  upon  one  of  the 
mountains  which  I  will  tell  thee  of. 

And  Abraham  rose  early  in  the  morning,  and 
saddled  his  ass,  and  took  two  of  his  young  men 
with  him,  and  Isaac  his  son ;  and  he  clave  the  wood 
for  the  burnt  offering,  and  rose  up,  and  went  unto 
the  place  of  which  God  had  told  him.  On  the 
third  day  Abraham  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  saw  the 
place  afar  off.  And  Abraham  said  unto  his  young 
men,  Abide  ye  here  with  the  ass,  and  I  and  the 
lad  will  go  yonder  •  and  we  will  worship,  and  come 
again  to  you. 

And  Abraham  took  the  wood  of  the  burnt  offer- 
ing, and  laid  it  upon  Isaac  his  son ;  and  he  took  in 
his  hand  the  fire  and  the  knife ;  and  they  went  both 
of  them  together.  And  Isaac  spake  unto  Abraham 
his  father,  and  said,  My  father  !  And  he  said,  Here 
am  I,  my  son.  And  he  said,  Behold,  the  fire  and 
the  wood  ;  but  where  is  the  lamb  for  a  burnt  offer- 
ing?    And  Abraham  said,  God  will  provide  himself 


150  THE   MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

the  lamb  for  a  burnt  offering,  my  son ;  so  they  went 
both  of  them  together. 

And  they  came  to  the  place  which  God  had  told 
him  ofj  and  Abraham  built  the  altar  there,  and 
laid  the  wood  in  order,  and  bound  Isaac  his  son, 
and  laid  him  on  the  altar,  upon  the  wood.  And 
Abraham  stretched  forth  his  hand,  and  took  the 
knife  to  slay  his  son.  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
called  unto  him  out  of  heaven,  and  said,  Abraham, 
Abraham  !  And  he  said,  Here  am  I.  And  he  said, 
Lay  not  thine  hand  upon  the  lad,  neither  do  thou 
any  thing  unto  him ;  for  now  I  know  that  thou 
fearest  God,  seeing  thou  hast  not  withheld  thy  son, 
thine  only  son,  from  me. 

And  Abraham  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  looked,  and 
behold,  behind  him  a  ram  caught  in  the  thicket  by 
his  horns  ;  and  Abraham  went  and  took  the  ram, 
and  offered  him  up  for  a  burnt  offering  in  the  stead 
of  his  son. 

And  Abraham  called  the  name  of  that  place 
Jehovah -jireh,  as  it  is  said  to  this  day,  In  the 
mount  of  the  Lord  it  shall  be  provided.  And  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  called  unto  Abraham  a  second  time 
out  of  heaven,  and  saith,  By  myself  have  I  sworn,  saith 
the  Lord,  because  thou  hast  done  this  thing,  and 
hast  not  withheld  thy  son,  thine  only  son,  that  in 
blessing  I  will  bless  thee,  and  in  multiplying  I  will 
multiply  thy  progeny  as  the  stars  of  the  heaven,  and 
as  the  sand  which  is  upon  the  sea  shore ;  and  thy 
posterity   shall   possess   the   gate   of    his    enemies; 


THE   STORY   OF   OFFERING   ISAAC  I  5  I 

and  in  thy  posterity  shall  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  be  blessed,  because  thou  hast  obeyed  my 
voice. 

So  Abraham  returned  unto  his  young  men,  and 
they  rose  up  and  went  together  to  Beersheba ;  and 
Abraham  dwelt  at  Beersheba. 

And  it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,  that  it  was 
told  Abraham,  saying,  Behold,  Milcah,  she  also 
hath  borne  children  unto  thy  brother  Nahor;  Uz 
his  firstborn,  and  Buz  his  brother,  and  Kemuel  the 
father  of  Aram  ;  and  Chesed,  and  Hazo,  and  Pil- 
dash,  and  Jidlaph,  and  Bethuel.  And  Bethuel 
begat  Rebekah.  These  eight  did  Milcah  bear  to 
Nahor,  Abraham's  brother.  And  his  concubine, 
whose  name  was  Reumah,  she  also  bare  Tebah,  and 
Gaham,  and  Tahash,  and  Maacah. 


XVII 

THE    SACRED    BURIAL    PLACE 

Before  bringing  in  the  Jehovist's  story  of  the 
marriage  of  Isaac  and  Rebekah,  the  compiler 
introduced  from  the  Elohist  an  account  of  the 
consecration  of  Hebron  as  the  ancestral  burial 
place.  The  story  of  the  death  of  Sarah,  and  the 
purchase  of  the  field  of  Machpelah  is  in  the  matter- 
of-fact  style  characteristic  of  the  Elohist  writer. 
Much  stress  is  laid  upon  the  acquisition  of  the 
land,  by  formal  purchase,  with  the  consent  of  the 
Hittites,  for  the  highest  consecration  of  Israel's 
right  of  possession  in  Canaan  was  the  burial  there 
of  the  ancestors  of  the  race.  The  Elohist  always 
associated  Abraham  with  Hebron,  the  first  sacred 
place  of  the  Kingdom  of  Judah,  and  the  compiler 
of  the  record  saw  that  his  bones  and  those  of 
Isaac  and  Jacob  were  gathered  to  the  original 
burial  place  of  Sarah,  to  complete  the  consecra- 
tion, though  the  developed  story  of  Jacob,  being 
that  of  the  Jehovist,  connected  his  name  chiefly 
with  the  Northern  Kingdom,  and  implied  his  final 
burial  at  or  near  Shechem. 

152 


THE   SACRED   BURIAL   PLACE  1 53 

[XXIII] 

And  the  life  of  Sarah  was  an  hundred  and  seven  and 
twenty  years  :  these  were  the  years  of  the  life  of 
Sarah.  And  Sarah  died  in  Kiriath-a'rba  (the  same 
is  Hebron),  in  the  land  of  Canaan;  and  Abraham 
came  to  mourn  for  Sarah,  and  to  weep  for  her. 

And  Abraham  rose  up  from  before  his  dead,  and 
spake  unto  the  children  of  Heth,  saying,  I  am  a 
stranger  and  a  sojourner  with  you;  give  me  a 
possession  of  a  buryingplace  with  you,  that  I  may 
bury  my  dead  out  of  my  sight. 

And  the  children  of  Heth  answered  Abraham, 
saying  unto  him,  Hear  us,  my  lord ;  thou  art  a 
prince  of  God  among  us ;  in  the  choice  of  our 
sepulchres  bury  thy  dead ;  none  of  us  shall  with- 
hold from  thee  his  sepulchre,  but  that  thou  mayest 
bury  thy  dead. 

And  Abraham  rose  up,  and  bowed  himself  to  the 
people  of  the  land,  even  to  the  children  of  Heth. 
And  he  communed  with  them,  saying,  If  it  be  your 
mind  that  I  should  bury  my  dead  out  of  my  sight, 
hear  me,  and  intreat  for  me  to  Ephron  the  son  of 
Zohar,  that  he  may  give  me  the  cave  of  Machpelah, 
which  he  hath,  which  is  in  the  end  of  his  field;  for 
the  full  price  let  him  give  it  to  me  in  the  midst  of 
you  for  a  possession  of  a  buryingplace. 

Now  Ephron  was  sitting  in  the  midst  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Heth ;  and  Ephron  the  Hittite  answered 
Abraham  in  the  audience  of  the  children  of  Heth, 
even  of  all  that  went  in  at  the  gate  of  his  city,  say- 


154  THE    MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

ing,  Nay,  my  lord,  hear  me  ;  the  field  give  I  thee, 
and  the  cave  that  is  therein,  I  give  it  thee ;  in  the 
presence  of  the  sons  of  my  people  give  I  it  thee ; 
bury  thy  dead. 

And  Abraham  bowed  himself  down  before  the 
people  of  the  land.  And  he  spake  unto  Ephron  in 
the  audience  of  the  people  of  the  land,  saying,  But 
if  thou  wilt,  I  pray  thee,  hear  me ;  I  will  give  the 
price  of  the  field ;  take  it  of  me,  and  I  will  bury  my 
dead  there. 

And  Ephron  answered  Abraham,  saying  unto  him, 
My  lord,  hearken  unto  me  ;  a  piece  of  land  worth 
four  hundred  shekels  of  silver,  what  is  that  betwixt 
me  and  thee?  bury  therefore  thy  dead. 

And  Abraham  hearkened  unto  Ephron  ;  and  Abra- 
ham weighed  to  Ephron  the  silver,  which  he  had 
named  in  the  audience  of  the  children  of  Heth,  four 
hundred  shekels  of  silver,  current  money  with  the  mer- 
chant. So  the  field  of  Ephron,  which  was  in  Mach- 
pelah,  which  was  before  Mamre,  the  field,  and  the 
cave  which  was  therein,  and  all  the  trees  that  were 
in  the  field,  that  were  in  all  the  border  thereof  round 
about,  were  made  sure  unto  Abraham  for  a  possession 
in  the  presence  of  the  children  of  Heth,  before  all 
that  went  in  at  the  gate  of  his  city. 

And  after  this,  Abraham  buried  Sarah  his  wife  in  the 
cave  of  the  field  of  Machpelah  before  Mamre  (the  same 
is  Hebron),  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  And  the  field, 
and  the  cave  that  is  therein,  were  made  sure  unto 
Abraham  for  a  possession  of  a  buryingplace  by  the 
children  of  Heth. 


XVIII 


THE    STORY    OF    REBEKAH 


The  beautiful  idyl  which  pictures  the  patri- 
archal caravan  making  its  way  over  the  hill 
country  of  Ephraim  to  Syria  to  bring  back  the 
bride  of  Isaac,  bears  all  the  marks  of  the  imagi- 
native genius  of  the  Jehovist  writer,  as  well  as 
his  habitual  recognition  of  divine  direction  in 
whatever  relates  to  the  history  of  his  people. 
The  color  is  doubtless  that  of  his  own  time,  in 
the  reign  of  Jehu,  at  Samaria,  when  relations 
with  Damascus  were  somewhat  familiar. 

The  story  of  antique  kinship  breathes  kindliness 
between  the  two  nations,  which  were  prone  to 
alternate  quarrel  and  alliance,  and  there  is  a 
charming  picture  of  Oriental  hospitality  in  the 
camels  kneeling  at  the  well,  the  Syrian  maiden 
with  her  water  jar  upon  her  shoulder  welcoming 
the  messenger  from  her  father's  wandering  kins- 
men in  a  distant  land,  the  gifts  of  nose  ring 
and  bracelets,  and  of  jewels  and  raiment,  the 
eating  and  drinking  and  tarrying  all  night,  and 
the  parting  benediction  to  the  sister  as  she  rode 

J55 


156  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

away    on    the    gay    trappings     of    the     sleekest 
camel  to  her  new  home  in  a  far  country. 

The  purpose  of  the  story  appears  in  the  in- 
troductory passage.  Abraham,  "  old,  and  well 
stricken  in  age,"  contemplating  the  end  of  his 
eventful  life,  is  anxious  that  his  son  shall  not 
marry  of  the  daughters  of  the  Canaanites,  and 
shall  not  himself  go  to  "  Aram  of  the  two  riv- 
ers" for  a  wife,  lest  he  remain  there  and  lose 
the  heritage  of  his  adopted  land.  Thus  is  poet- 
ically expressed  at  once  the  repeated  injunction  ■ 
against  intermarriage  with  "  the  people  of  the 
land,"  and  a  renewed  sanction  of  its  permanent 
possession.  There  is  at  the  beginning  no  inti- 
mation of  Abraham's  place  of  abode,  and  we 
bring  from  the  previous  chapter  an  impression 
of  Hebron,  but  the  end  carries  us  back  to  the 
South  as  the  home  of  Isaac.  But  at  that  time 
there  is  no  more  question  of  the  aged  father. 
He  has  disappeared  from  the  scene,  and  "the 
master"  is  now  the  son,  who  takes  the  bride  to 
the  tent  of  his  mother,  Sarah,  whom  we  have 
seen  buried  at  Hebron. 

The  mixed  impression  produced  is  due  to  the 
difference  of  origin  of  the  stories  of  Sarah's  death 
and  of  Isaac's  marriage,  and  it  was  the  compiler 
who  added  the  prosaic  close  of  the  latter  for  the 


THE   STORY   OF   REBEKAH  1 57 

sake  of  completeness,  and  he  was,  fortunately, 
never  at  much  pains  to  harmonize  the  material 
which  he  strung  together  with  so  little  regard  for 
continuity  or  consistency. 

[XXIV] 

And  Abraham  was  old,  and  well  stricken  in  age  ; 
and  the  Lord  had  blessed  Abraham  in  all  things. 
And  Abraham  said  unto  his  servant,  the  elder  of  his 
house,  that  ruled  over  all  that  he  had,  Put,  I  pray 
thee,  thy  hand  under  my  thigh;  and  I  will  make 
thee  swear  by  the  Lord,  the  God  of  heaven  and  the 
God  of  the  earth,  that  thou  shalt  not  take  a  wife  for 
my  son  of  the  daughters  of  the  Canaanites,  among 
whom  I  dwell ;  but  thou  shalt  go  unto  my  country, 
and  to  my  kindred,  and  take  a  wife  for  my  son 
Isaac. 

And  the  servant  said  unto  him,  Peradventure  the 
woman  will  not  be  willing  to  follow  me  unto  this 
land  ;  must  I  needs  bring  thy  son  again  unto  the  land 
from  whence  thou  earnest  ?  And  Abraham  said  unto 
him,  Beware  that  thou  bring  not  my  son  thither 
again.  The  Lord,  the  God  of  heaven,  that  took 
me  from  my  father's  house,  and  from  the  land  of  my 
nativity,  and  that  spake  unto  me,  and  that  swear 
unto  me,  saying,  Unto  thy  offspring  will  I  give  this 
land,  he  shall  send  his  messenger  before  thee,  and 
thou  shalt  take  a  wife  for  my  son  from  thence.  And 
if  the  woman  be  not  willing  to  follow  thee,  then  thou 
shalt  be  clear  from  this  my  oath ;  only  thou  shalt 


158  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

not  bring  my  son  thither  again.  And  the  servant 
put  his  hand  under  the  thigh  of  Abraham  his  master, 
and  swear  to  him  concerning  this  matter. 

And  the  servant  took  ten  camels,  of  the  camels  of 
his  master,  and  departed,  having  all  goodly  things 
of  his  master's  in  his  keeping ;  and  he  arose,  and 
went  to  Mesopotamia,  unto  the  city  of  Nahor.  And 
he  made  the  camels  to  kneel  down  without  the  city 
by  the  well  of  water  at  the  time  of  evening,  the  time 
that  women  go  out  to  draw  water. 

And  he  said,  O  Lord,  the  God  of  my  master 
Abraham,  send  me,  I  pray  thee,  good  speed  this 
day,  and  shew  kindness  unto  my  master  Abraham. 
Behold,  I  stand  by  the  fountain  of  water ;  and  the 
daughters  of  the  men  of  the  city  come  out  to  draw 
water ;  and  let  it  come  to  pass,  that  the  damsel  to 
whom  I  shall  say,  Let  down  thy  pitcher,  I  pray  thee, 
that  I  may  drink  ;  and  she  shall  say,  1  )rink,  and  I 
will  give  thy  camels  drink  also  :  let  the  same  be  she 
that  thou  hast  appointed  for  thy  servant  Isaac ;  and 
thereby  shall  I  know  that  thou  has  shewed  kindness 
unto  my  master. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  before  he  had  done  speak- 
ing, that,  behold,  Rebekah  came  out,  who  was  born 
to  Bethuel  the  son  of  Milcah,  the  wife  of  Nahor, 
Abraham's  brother,  with  her  water  jar  upon  her 
shoulder.  And  the  damsel  was  very  fair  to  look 
upon,  a  virgin,  neither  had  any  man  known  her ; 
and  she  went  down  to  the  fountain,  and  lilted  her 
jar,  and  came  up.  And  the  servant  ran  to  meet 
her,  and  said,  Give  me  to  drink,  I  pray  thee,  a  little 


THE    STORY    OF    REBEKAH  1 59 

water  of  thy  jar.  And  she  said,  Drink,  my  lord ; 
and  she  hasted,  and  let  down  her  jar  upon  her  hand, 
and  gave  him  drink.  And  when  she  had  done  giv- 
ing him  drink,  she  said,  I  will  draw  for  thy  camels 
also,  until  they  have  done  drinking.  And  she  hasted, 
and  emptied  her  jar  into  the  trough,  and  ran  again 
unto  the  well  to  draw,  and  drew  for  all  his  camels. 

And  the  man  looked  stedfastly  on  her;  holding 
his  peace,  to  know  whether  the  Lord  had  made  his 
journey  prosperous  or  not.  And  it  came  to  pass, 
as  the  camels  had  done  drinking,  that  the  man  took 
a  golden  nose  ring  of  half  a  shekel  weight,  and  two 
bracelets  for  her  hands  of  ten  shekels  weight  of 
gold  ;  and  said,  Whose  daughter  art  thou  ?  tell  me, 
I  pray  thee.  Is  there  room  in  thy  father's  house  for 
us  to  lodge  in?  And  she  said  unto  him,  I  am  the 
daughter  of  Bethuel  the  son  of  Milcah,  which  she 
bare  unto  Nahor.  She  said  moreover  unto  him,  We 
have  both  straw  and  provender  enough,  and  room 
to  lodge  in. 

And  the  man  bowed  his  head,  and  worshipped 
the  Lord.  And  he  said,  Blessed  be  the  Lord,  the 
God  of  my  master  Abraham,  who  hath  not  forsaken 
his  mercy  and  his  truth  toward  my  master ;  as  for 
me,  the  Lord  hath  led  me  in  the  way  to  the  house 
of  my  master's  brethren. 

And  the  damsel  ran,  and  told  her  mother's  house 
according  to  these  words.  And  Rebekah  had  a 
brother,  and  his  name  was  Laban ;  and  Laban  ran 
out  unto  the  man,  unto  the  fountain.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  when  he  saw  the  nose  ring,  and  the  brace- 


l6o  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

lets  upon  his  sister's  hands,  and  when  he  heard  the 
words  of  Rebekah  his  sister,  saying,  Thus  spake  the 
man  unto  me  ;  that  he  came  unto  the  man,  and, 
behold,  he  stood  by  the  camels  at  the  fountain. 
And  he  said,  Come  in,  thou  blessed  of  the  Lord; 
wherefore  standest  thou  without?  for  I  have  pre- 
pared the  house,  and  room  for  the  camels. 

And  the  man  came  into  the  house,  and  he  un- 
girded  the  camels ;  and  he  gave  straw  and  proven- 
der for  the  camels,  and  water  to  wash  his  feet  and 
the  men's  feet  that  were  with  him.  And  there  was 
set  meat  before  him  to  eat;  but  he  said,  I  will  not 
eat,  until  I  have  told  mine  errand.  And  he  said, 
Speak  on. 

And  he  said,  I  am  Abraham's  servant.  And  the 
Lord  hath  blessed  my  master  greatly,  and  he  is 
become  great ;  and  he  hath  given  him  flocks  and 
herds,  and  silver  and  gold,  and  menservants  and 
maidservants,  and  camels  and  asses.  And  Sarah  my 
master's  wife  bare  a  son  to  my  master  when  she  was 
old,  and  unto  him  hath  he  given  all  that  he  hath. 
And  my  master  made  me  swear,  saying,  Thou  shalt 
not  take  a  wife  for  my  son  of  the  daughters  of  the 
Canaanites,  in  whose  land  I  dwell  ;  but  thou  shalt 
go  unto  my  father's  house,  and  to  my  kindred,  and 
take  a  wife  for  my  son.  And  I  said  unto  my  master, 
Peradventure  the  woman  will  not  follow  me.  And 
he  said  unto  me,  The  Lord,  before  whom  I  walk, 
will  send  his  messenger  with  thee,  and  prosper  thy 
way ;  and  thou  shalt  take  a  wife  for  my  son  of  my 
kindred,  and  of  my  father's  house ;  then  shalt  thou 


THE   STORY   OF   REBEKAH  l6l 

be  clear  from  my  oath,  when  thou  comest  to  my 
kindred  j  and  if  they  give  her  not  to  thee,  thou  shalt 
be  clear  from  my  oath.     And  I  came  this  day  unto 
the  fountain,  and  said,  O  Lord,  the  God  of  my  mas- 
ter Abraham,  if  now  thou  do  prosper'  my  way  which 
I  go  :  behold,  I  stand  by  the  fountain  of  water  j  and 
let  it  come  to  pass,  that  the  maiden  which  cometh 
forth  to  draw,  to  whom  I  shall  say,  Give  me,  I  pray 
thee,  a  little  water  of  thy  water  jar  to  drink ;  and 
she  shall  say  to  me,  Both  drink  thou,  and  I  will  also 
draw  for  thy  camels  :   let  the  same  be  the  woman 
whom  the  Lord  hath  appointed  for  my  master's  son. 
And  before  I  had  done  speaking  in  mine  heart,  be- 
hold, Rebekah  came  forth  with  her  water  jar  on  her 
shoulder ;    and  she  went  down  unto  the  fountain, 
and  drew;    and  I  said  unto  her,  Let  me  drink,  I 
pray  thee.     And  she  made  haste,  and  let  down  her 
jar  from  her  shoulder,  and  said,  Drink,  and  I  will 
give  thy  camels  drink  also  ;    so  I   drank,  and  she 
made  the  camels  drink  also.     And  I  asked  her,  and 
said,  Whose  daughter  art  thou  ?     And  she  said,  The 
daughter  of  Bethuel,  Nahor's  son,  whom  Milcah-bare 
unto  him  ;  and  I  put  the  ring  upon  her  nose,  and 
the  bracelets  upon  her  hands.     And  I  bowed  my 
head,  and  worshipped  the   Lord,  and   blessed  the 
Lord,  the  God  of  my  master  Abraham,  which  had 
led  me  in  the  right  way  to  take  my  master's  brother's 
daughter  for  his  son.    And  now  if  ye  will  deal  kindly 
and  truly  with  my  master,  tell  me  ;  and  if  not,  tell 
me  ;  that  I  may  turn  to  the  right  hand,  or  to  the 
left. 

M 


162  THE   MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

Then  Laban  and  Bethucl  answered  and  said,  The 
thing  proceedeth  from  the  Lord  ;  we  cannot  speak 
unto  thee  bad  or  good.  Behold,  Rebekah  is  before 
thee,  take  her,  and  go,  and  let  her  be  thy  master's 
son's  wife,  as  the  Lord  hath  spoken. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that,  when  Abraham's  ser- 
vant heard  their  words,  he  bowed  himself  down  to 
the  earth  unto  the  Lord.  And  the  servant  brought 
forth  jewels  of  silver,  and  jewels  of  gold,  and  rai- 
ment, and  gave  them  to  Rebekah  ;  he  gave  also  to 
her  brother  and  to  her  mother  precious  things.  And 
they  did  eat  and  drink,  he  and  the  men  that  were 
with  him,  and  tarried  all  night ;  and  they  rose  up 
in  the  morning,  and  he  said,  Send  me  away  unto  my 
master. 

And  her  brother  and  her  mother  said,  Let  the 
damsel  abide  with  us  a  few  days,  at  the  least  ten  ; 
after  that  she  shall  go.  And  he  said  unto  them, 
Hinder  me  not,  seeing  the  Lord  hath  prospered  my 
way ;  send  me  away  that  I  may  go  to  my  master. 
And  they  said,  We  will  call  the  damsel,  and  inquire 
at  her  mouth.  And  they  called  Rebekah,  and  said 
unto  her,  Wilt  thou  go  with  this  man?  And  she 
said,  I  will  go.  And  they  sent  away  Rebekah  their 
sister,  and  her  nurse,  and  Abraham's  servant,  and 
his  men.  And  they  blessed  Rebekah,  and  said  unto 
her,  Our  sister,  be  thou  the  mother  of  thousands  of 
ten  thousands,  and  let  thy  offspring  possess  the  gate 
of  those  which  hate  them.  And  Rebekah  arose,  and 
her  damsels,  and  they  rode  upon  the  camels,  and 
followed  the  man. 


THE   STORY   OF   REBEKAH  1 63 

[And  the  servant  took  Rebekah,  and  went  his  way. 
And  Isaac  came  from  the  way  of  Beer-lahai-roi ; 
(for  he  dwelt  in  the  land  of  the  South.)  And 
Isaac  went  out  to  meditate  in  the  field  at  the 
eventide  ;  and  he  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  saw,  and, 
behold,  there  were  camels  coming.  And  Rebekah 
lifted  up  her  eyes,  and  when  she  saw  Isaac,  she 
lighted  off  the  camel.  And  she  said  unto  the  ser- 
vant, What  man  is  this  that  walketh  in  the  field  to 
meet  us  ?  And  the  servant  said,  It  is  my  master ; 
and  she  took  her  veil,  and  covered  herself.  And  the 
servant  told  Isaac  all  the  things  that  he  had  done. 
And  Isaac  brought  her  into  his  mother  Sarah's 
tent,  and  took  Rebekah,  and  she  became  his  wife ; 
and  he  loved  her,  and  Isaac  was  comforted  after 
his  mother's  death.] 


XIX 

VARIED    PROGENY    OF    ABRAHAM 

The  compiler's  disregard  of  consistency  is  strik- 
ingly illustrated  in  what  immediately  follows  the 
story  of  Rebekah.  Abraham  had  been  repre- 
sented as  stricken  in  age  and  apparently  about 
to  die,  and  then  had  disappeared  from  the  story. 
We  gather  from  fragments  of  the  Elohist  docu- 
ment in  the  general  narrative  that  Abraham  was 
a  hundred  years  old  when  Isaac  was  born,  and  it 
was  then  regarded  as  a  marvel  that  he  and  his 
aged  wife  should  be  blessed  with  a  son.  It 
was  thirty-seven  years  later  when  Sarah  died, 
and  Isaac  was  forty  years  old  when  he  took 
Rebekah  to  be  his  wife.  And  yet  another 
ethnographic  fragment  is  brought  in  which  rep- 
resents Abraham  as  marrying  again  and  having 
six  children  by  his  new  wife  Keturah,  besides  an 
unmentioned  number  of  "sons  of  the  concubines." 

The  names  of  the  sons  of  Keturah  are  cpo- 
nymic,  and  the  fragment  contains  an  indepen- 
dent attempt  to  account  for  the  wandering  tribes 
of  the  desert,  inconsistent  with  that  which  rep- 
resented   them    as   the    descendants    of    Ishmael. 

164 


VARIED   PROGENY   OF   ABRAHAM  1 65 

Medan  and  Midian  are  variations  of  the  same 
designation,  and  it  will  be  noticed  hereafter  in 
the  story  of  Joseph  how  the  Midianites  and  Ish- 
maelites  were  confounded.  In  the ,  account  of 
Gideon's  victory  over  Midian  in  the  Book  of 
Judges  it  is  said  that  his  captives  had  nose 
rings  "  because  they  were  Ishmaelites." 

Sheba  and  Dedan  are  designations  of  territory, 
the  latter  in  the  East,  and  the  former  in  Southern 
Arabia  and  the  upper  Nile  region,  and  both  names 
appear  in  the  post-diluvian  ethnography  of  Chap- 
ter x.  among  the  descendants  of  Ham.  All  this 
goes  to  show  not  only  the  mythical  quality  of  this 
kind  of  material,  but  the  diversity  of  its  sources. 
This  fragment  could  not  have  belonged  to  either 
of  the  documents  containing  the  stories  of  Ish- 
mael,  and  it  seems  to  be  wholly  apart  from  the 
patriarchal  tales. 

The  short  passage  which  follows  it,  relating  to 
the  death  and  burial  of  Abraham,  is  unquestion- 
ably from  the  Elohist,  who  never  separated  Ish- 
mael  from  his  father's  family,  and  who  seldom 
fails  to  mention  the  age  of  his  characters.  He 
was  much  addicted  to  the  details  of  family  gen- 
ealogy. The  final  statement  of  Isaac's  residence 
in  the  South  was  evidently  interpolated  by  the 
compiler. 


1 66  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

The  brief  account  of  the  "  generations  of 
Ishmael,"  which  indicates  again  the  system  of 
twelve  tribes,  must  be  in  substance  at  least  from 
the  Elohist,  but  the  final  statement  is  drawn  from 
the  Jehovist's  story,  being  a  mere  repetition  of 
xvi.  12. 

This  entire  Chapter  xxv.  is  made  up  by  piec- 
ing together  fragments  from  different  materials 
in  the  hands  of  the  compiler.  After  the  Ishmael- 
ite  genealogy  there  is  the  beginning  of  the  "  gen- 
erations of  Isaac  "  from  the  Elohist  document,  but 
it  is  broken  off  to  bring  in  the  ethnic  myth  of 
Jacob  and  Esau,  which  is  derived  from  the  Jeho- 
vist,  and  probably  belonged  to  his  original  material 
of  the  legends  of  the  patriarchs. 

When  these  were  written,  the  Edomites  had 
been  brought  into  subjection  by  Israel,  but  it  was 
a  recognized  fact  that  they  were  not  only  a  kin- 
dred nation,  but  a  much  older  one  in  the  possession 
of  a  regular  government.  It  suited  the  purpose 
of  the  writer  to  represent  them  as  an  uncivilized 
people  over  whom  the  Israelites  had  gained  a 
primacy  by  their  superior  craft  and  thrift.  The 
name  "  Edom  "  meant  red  and  was  applied  to  the 
people,  while  their  country  was  generally  called 
"  Seir,"  which  meant  shaggy,  or  hairy.  The  He- 
brew equivalent,  "Esau,"  also  meant  hairy.     In  this 


VARIED    PROGENY    OF   ABRAHAM  167 

primitive  tale  redness  is  not  only  attributed  to  the 
newly  born  child,  but  to  the  pottage  for  which 
he  afterwards  sold  his  birthright. 

Jacob  had  long  been  a  poetical  designation  of 
all  Israel,  and  the  name  had  an  etymological  re- 
lation to  a  word  meaning  heel.  Out  of  these  ele- 
ments of  the  significance  of  names,  the  recognized 
relations  of  the  two  peoples,  and  the  desire  to  ex- 
alt the  origin  of  the  one  at  the  expense  of  the 
other,  was  developed  this  little  myth  in  whose 
simplicity  there  is  a  depth  of  ethnic  meaning 
characteristic  of  the  productions  of  pristine  genius. 

[XXV] 

[And  Abraham  took  another  wife,  and  her  name 
was  Keturah.  And  she  bare  him  Zimran,  and 
Jokshan,  and  Medan,  and  Midian,  and  Ishbak,  and 
Shuah.  And  Jokshan  begat  Sheba,  and  Dedan. 
And  the  sons  of  Dedan  were  Asshurim,  and  Letu- 
shim,  and  Leummim.  And  the  sons  of  Midian  ; 
Ephah  and  Epher  and  Hanoch,  and  Abida,  and 
Eldaah.  All  these  were  the  children  of  Keturah. 
And  Abraham  gave  all  that  he  had  unto  Isaac.  But 
unto  the  sons  of  the  concubines,  which  Abraham 
had,  Abraham  gave  gifts ;  and  he  sent  them  away 
from  Isaac  his  son,  while  he  yet  lived,  eastward,  unto 
the  east  country.] 

And  these  are  the  days  of  the  years  of  Abraham's 
life  which  he  lived,  an  hundred  threescore  and  fifteen 


l68  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

years.  And  Abraham  gave  up  the  ghost,  and  died  in 
a  good  old  age,  an  old  man,  and  full  of  years ;  and 
was  gathered  to  his  people.  And  Isaac  and  Ishmael 
his  sons  buried  him  in  the  cave  of  Machpelah,  in 
the  field  of  Ephron  the  son  of  Zohar  the  Hittite, 
which  is  before  Mamre,  the  field  which  Abraham 
purchased  of  the  children  of  Heth  ;  there  was  Abra- 
ham buried,  and  Sarah  his  wife.  And  it  came  to 
pass  after  the  death  of  Abraham,  that  God  blessed 
Isaac  his  son  ;  [and  Isaac  dwelt  by  Beer-lahai-roi.~\ 

Now  these  are  the  generations  of  Ishmael,  Abra- 
ham's son,  whom  Hagar  the  Egyptian,  Sarah's 
handmaid,  bare  unto  Abraham  ;  and  these  are  the 
names  of  the  sons  of  Ishmael,  by  their  names,  ac- 
cording to  their  generations  :  the  firstborn  of  Ish- 
mael, Nebaioth ;  and  Kedar,  and  Adbeel,  and 
Mibsam,  and  Mishma,  and  Dumah,  and  Massa ; 
Hadad,  and  Tema,  Jetur,  Naphish,  and  Kedemah  : 
these  are  the  sons  of  Ishmael,  and  these  are  their 
names,  by  their  villages,  and  by  their  encampments, 
twelve  princes  according  to  their  nations.  And 
these  are  the  years  of  the  life  of  Ishmael,  an  hun- 
dred and  thirty  and  seven  years  ;  and  he  gave  up  the 
ghost  and  died,  and  was  gathered  unto  his  people. 
[And  they  dwelt  from  Havilah  unto  Shur  that  is 
before  Egypt,  as  thou  goest  toward  Assyria :  he 
abode  in  the  presence  of  all  his  brethren. ~\ 

[And  these  are  the  generations  of  Isaac,  Abra- 
ham's son  :    Abraham  begat  Isaac ;    and  Isaac  was 


VARIED   PROGENY   OF   ABRAHAM  1 69 

forty  years  old  when  he  took  Rebekah,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Bethuel  the  Syrian  of  Paddan-aram,  the  sister 
of  Laban  the  Syrian,  to  be  his  wife.]  — 

And  Isaac  intreated  the  Lord  for  his  wife,  because 
she  was  barren  ;  and  the  Lord  was  intreated  of  him, 
and  Rebekah  his  wife  conceived.  And  the  children 
struggled  together  within  her ;  and  she  said,  If  it  be 
so,  wherefore  do  I  live?  And  she  went  to  inquire 
of  the  Lord.     And  the  Lord  said  unto  her, 

Two  nations  are  in  thy  womb, 
And  two  peoples  shall  be  separated 

even  from  thy  bowels  ; 
And  the  one  people  shall  be  stronger 

than  the  other  people  ; 
And  the  elder  shall  serve  the  younger.' 

And  when  her  days  to  be  delivered  were  fulfilled, 
behold,  there  were  twins  in  her  womb.  And  the 
first  came  forth  red,  all  over  like  an  hairy  garment ; 
and  they  called  his  name  Esau.  And  after  that 
came  forth  his  brother,  and  his  hand  had  hold  on 
Esau's  heel;  and  his  name  was  called  Jacob:  [and 
Isaac  was  threescore  years  old  when  she  bare  thetn.~\ 

And  the  boys  grew ;  and  Esau  was  a  cunning 
hunter,  a  man  of  the  field ;  and  Jacob  was  a  plain 
man,  dwelling  in  tents.  Now  Isaac  loved  Esau, 
because  he  did  eat  of  his  venison ;  and  Rebekah 
loved  Jacob.  And  Jacob  boiled  pottage,  and  Esau 
came  in  from  the  field,  and  he  was  faint ;  and  Esau 
said  to  Jacob,  Feed  me,  I  pray  thee,  with  that  same 


170  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

red  pottage,  for  I  am  faint :  therefore  was  his  name 
called  Edom.  And  Jacob  said,  Sell  me  this  day  thy 
birthright.  And  Esau  said,  Behold,  I  am  at  the 
point  to  die ;  and  what  profit  shall  the  birthright  do 
to  me?  And  Jacob  said,  Swear  to  me  this  day  ;  and 
he  sware  unto  him,  and  he  sold  his  birthright  unto 
Jacob.  And  Jacob  gave  Esau  bread  and  pottage  of 
lentils  ;  and  he  did  eat  and  drink,  and  rose  up,  and 
went  his  way ;  so  Esau  despised  his  birthright. 


XX 

ISAAC    AND    ABIMELECH 

While  the  original  traditions  associated  with 
Beersheba  and  the  southern  border  of  Philistia 
pertained  to  the  name  Isaac,  which  stood  for 
some  ancient  branch  of  the  Hebrew  people  in 
that  region,  they  were  freely  used  in  the  Abraham 
legend,  and  when  the  compiler  of  the  narrative  in 
the  Book  of  Genesis  came  to  deal  with  Isaac  as  a 
personality  after  his  father's  death,  he  used  sub- 
stantially the  same  material  over  again,  or  ma- 
terial drawn  from  the  same  traditions.  There  is 
scarcely  anything  in  Chapter  xxvi.  which  is  not 
a  repetition  or  variation  of  what  was  related  of 
Abraham. 

The  material  is  in  the  main  that  of  the  Jehovist, 
who  gave  the  account  of  Abraham's  going  to 
Egypt,  in  Chapter  xii.,  but  who  had  no  hand  in 
the  story  of  Abraham  and  Abimelech  in  Chap- 
ter xx.  The  handiwork  of  the  compiler  himself 
is  however  more  than  usually  evident.  If  we  were 
to  give  heed  to  the  apparent  chronology  of  the 
record,  we  should  note  that  since  the  first  patri- 
arch's sojourn  at  Gerar  Isaac  had  been  born  and 

171 


172  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

had  reached  the  age  of  sixty  at  the  birth  of  the 
two  sons  who  have  already  been  represented  as 
grown  up,  and  yet  we  find  there  the  same  King 
Abimelech  and  the  same  Phicol  captain  of  his 
host.  Practically  the  same  story  is  told  of  the 
mother  of  the  grown-up  twins  that  was  told  of 
Sarah  when  she  was  ninety  years  old,  and  even 
then  it  was  a  variant  of  the  tale  of  the  fascination 
of  Pharaoh  at  the  time  of  the  visit  to  Egypt  a 
quarter  of  a  century  earlier.  But  chronology  has 
nothing  to  do  with  material  of  this  kind,  which 
is  drawn  from  various  sources  and  used  for  dif- 
ferent purposes  without  any  relation  to  historical 
fact. 

In  this  story,  while  the  familiar  device  of  a  fam- 
ine is  used  to  account  for  a  migration,  Isaac  is 
warned  against  going  into  Egypt.  The  main  pur- 
pose is  to  illustrate  the  ancient  relation  with  the 
Philistines  of  the  South,  a  peaceable  establishment 
of  the  division  of  territory  with  them,  and  the 
consecration  of  Beersheba  as  an  Israelite  posses- 
sion and  sacred  place.  The  original  writer  appar- 
ently knew  nothing  of  the  other  story,  attributing 
this  to  Abraham,  and  the  compiler,  in  his  desire 
to  give  prominence  to  Isaac  as  an  important  link 
in  the  line  of  descent  and  of  inheritance,  retained 
both  accounts.     It  was  doubtless  he  who  reiterated 


ISAAC   AND   ABIMELECH  1 73 

in  the  case  of  Isaac  the  promises  made  to  Abra- 
ham. The  repetition  of  the  wife  and  sister  story- 
indicates  barrenness  of  invention  and  seems  quite 
unnecessary  to  the  purpose  in  hand. 

The  statement  of  Isaac's  prosperity  is  like  that 
of  Abraham's  state  aforetime,  but  there  is  evi- 
dence of  the  blending  of  two  accounts  of  his 
differences  with  the  Philistines  and  of  their  set- 
tlement. From  one  it  would  appear  that  the 
Philistines  endeavored  to  check  his  encroachments 
by  filling  up  his  wells  and  cutting  off  the  supply 
of  water  for  his  herds,  and  that  the  King  of  Gerar 
induced  him  to  depart.  The  other  represents  him 
as  opening  the  same  wells,  filled  up  long  before, 
and  his  herdsmen  as  being  still  in  contention  with 
those  of  Gerar.  All  this  is  preliminary  to  taking 
possession  of  Beersheba,  and  entering  into  the 
treaty  of  peace  with  Abimelech  from  which  the 
name  of  the  place  was  derived.  We  are  indebted 
to  the  compiler  for  retaining  the  inconsistent  ac- 
counts which  he  found  in  his  material  of  this  and 
of  other  events,  for  it  is  precisely  these  variations, 
repetitions,  and  inconsistencies  that  have  enabled 
students  to  trace,  not  with  clearness  perhaps,  but 
with  certainty,  the  different  sources  of  his  mate- 
rial, and  to  demonstrate  the  seriously  mythical 
character  and  purpose  of  these  old  writings. 


174  THE  MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

[XXVI  1-33] 

And  there  was  a  famine  in  the  land,  beside  the 
first  famine  that  was  in  the  days  of  Abraham.  And 
Isaac  went  unto  Abimelech  king  of  the  Philistines 
unto  Gerar.  And  the  Lord  appeared  unto  him,  and 
said,  Go  not  down  into  Egypt ;  dwell  in  the  land 
which  I  shall  tell  thee  of;  sojourn  in  this  land,  and 
I  will  be  with  thee,  and  will  bless  thee  \  for  unto  thee, 
and  unto  thy  race,  I  will  give  all  these  lands,  and  I  will 
establish  the  oath  which  I  sware  unto  Abraham  thy 
father ;  and  I  will  multiply  thy  progeny  as  the  stars 
of  heaven,  and  will  give  unto  thy  posterity  all  these 
lands ;  and  in  thy  posterity  shall  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  be  blessed,  because  that  Abraham  obeyed 
my  voice,  and  kept  my  charge,  my  commandments, 
my  statutes,  and  my  laws. 

And  Isaac  dwelt  in  Gerar ;  and  the  men  of  the 
place  asked  him  of  his  wife,  and  he  said,  She  is  my 
sister ;  for  he  feared  to  say,  My  wife,  lest,  said  he, 
the  men  of  the  place  should  kill  me  for  Rebekah  : 
because  she  was  fair  to  look  upon. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  he  had  been  there  a 
long  time,  that  Abimelech  king  of  the  Philistines 
looked  out  at  a  window,  and  saw,  and,  behold,  Isaac 
was  caressing  Rebekah  his  wife.  And  Abimelech 
called  Isaac,  and  said,  Behold,  of  a  surety  she  is  thy 
wife,  and  how  saidst  thou,  She  is  my  sister?  And 
Isaac  said  unto  him,  Because  I  said,  Lest  I  die  for 
her.  And  Abimelech  said,  What  is  this  thou  hast 
done  unto  us  ?    One  of  the  people  might  lightly  have 


ISAAC   AND   ABIMELECH  1 75 

lain  with  thy  wife,  and  thou  shouldest  have  brought 
guiltiness  upon  us.  And  Abimelech  charged  all  the 
people,  saying,  He  that  toucheth  this  man  or  his 
wife  shall  surely  be  put  to  death. 

And  Isaac  sowed  in  that  land,  and  found  in  the 
same  year  an  hundredfold;  and  the  Lord  blessed 
him.  And  the  man  waxed  great,  and  grew  more 
and  more  until  he  became  very  great ;  and  he  had 
possessions  of  flocks,  and  possessions  of  herds,  and 
a  great  household,  and  the  Philistines  envied  him. 
Now  all  the  wells  which  his  father's  servants  had 
digged  in  the  days  of  Abraham  his  father,  the  Philis- 
tines had  stopped  them,  and  filled  them  with  earth. 
And  Abimelech  said  unto  Isaac,  Go  from  us,  for 
thou  art  much  mightier  than  we.  And  Isaac  de- 
parted thence,  and  encamped  in  the  valley  of  Gerar, 
and  dwelt  there. 

[And  Isaac  digged  again  the  wells  of  water,  which 
they  had  digged  in  the  days  of  Abraham  his  father ; 
for  the  Philistines  had  stopped  them  after  the  death 
of  Abraham  ;  and  he  called  their  names  after  the 
names  by  which  his  father  had  called  them.] 

And  Isaac's  servants  digged  in  the  valley,  and 
found  there  a  well  of  springing  water.  And  the 
herdmen  of  Gerar  strove  with  Isaac's  herdmen,  say- 
ing, The  water  is  ours ;  and  he  called  the  name  of 
the  well  Esek,  because  they  contended  with  him. 
And  they  digged  another  well,  and  they  strove  for 
that  also  ;  and  he  called  the  name  of  it  Sitnah.  And 
he  removed  from  thence,  and  digged  another  well ; 


176  THE   MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

and  for  that  they  strove  not,  and  he  called  the  name 
of  it  Rehoboth  ;  and  he  said,  For  now  the  Lord  hath 
made  room  for  us,  and  we  shall  be  fruitful  in  the  land. 

And  he  went  up  from  thence  to  Beersheba.  And 
the  Lord  appeared  unto  him  the  same  night,  and 
said,  I  am  the  God  of  Abraham  thy  father ;  fear 
not,  for  I  am  with  thee,  ami  will  bless  thee,  and 
multiply  thy  progeny  for  my  servant  Abraham's  sake. 
And  he  builded  an  altar  there,  and  called  upon  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  and  pitched  his  tent  there ;  and 
there  Isaac's  servants  digged  a  well. 

Then  Abimelech  went  to  him  from  Gerar,  and 
Ahuzzath  his  friend,  and  Phicol  the  captain  of  his 
host.  And  Isaac  said  unto  them,  Wherefore  are  ye 
come  unto  me,  seeing  ye  hate  me,  and  have  sent 
me  away  from  you?  And  they  said,  We  saw  plainly 
that  the  Lord  was  with  thee ;  and  we  said,  Let 
there  now  be  an  oath  betwixt  us,  even  betwixt  us 
and  thee,  and  let  us  make  a  covenant  with  thee, 
that  thou  wilt  do  us  no  hurt,  as  we  have  not  touched 
thee,  and  as  we  have  done  unto  thee  nothing  but 
good,  and  have  sent  thee  away  in  peace  :  thou  art 
now  the  blessed  of  the  Lord.  And  he  made  them 
a  feast,  and  they  did  eat  and  drink.  And  they 
rose  up  betimes  in  the  morning,  and  sware  one  to 
another ;  and  Isaac  sent  them  away,  and  they 
departed  from  him  in  peace. 

And  it  came  to  pass  the  same  day,  that  Isaac's 
servants  came,  and  told  him  concerning  the  well 
which  they  had  digged,  and  said  unto  him,  We 
have  found  water.  And  he  called  it  Shibah  ;  there- 
fore the  name  of  the  city  is  Beersheba  unto  this  day. 


XXI 

THE    TWIN    PEOPLES 

A  fragment  of  family  genealogy  characteristic 
of  the  Elohist  is  introduced  at  the  end  of  Chap- 
ter xxvi.,  stating  the  marriage  of  Esau  at  the  age 
of  forty.  Then  follows  another  ethnic  myth  illus- 
trative of  the  relations  of  Israel  and  Edom,  much 
more  elaborate  than  that  at  the  end  of  Chapter 
xxv.,  and  obviously  from  a  different  source.  It 
seems  to  be  mainly  the  work  of  the  Jehovist, 
whose  peculiar  inventive  genius  is  plainly  recog- 
nizable. What  would  appear  extremely  repre- 
hensible in  the  conduct  of  individuals,  from  a 
moral  point  of  view,  loses  all  moral  quality  when 
regarded  as  a  mythological  representation  of  an 
existing  state  of  things  between  nations. 

Edom,  the  older  nation,  had  been  subjugated  by 
Israel  in  the  time  of  David,  held  in  subjection 
until  the  time  of  Joram,  and  reconquered  by  Ama- 
ziah,  but  finally  it  broke  loose  again  and  shook 
the  yoke  from  off  its  neck.  It  was  regarded  as 
of  the  same  origin  as  Israel,  combining  the  ethnic 
elements  of  the  South  and  the  North  personified 

N  177 


178  THE   MYTHS  OF   [SRAEL 

in  Isaac  and  Rebekah,  but  as  having  been  sup- 
planted and  outdone  in  the  race  of  life  by  the 
superior  qualities  of  the  younger  of  the  twin 
peoples,  with  the  complicity  of  divine  favor. 
This  condition  of  things,  regarded  from  the 
Israelite  point  of  view,  actually  existed  in  the 
time  of  the  writer,  and  the  deception  practised 
in  the  story  may  illustrate  the  moral  standard 
of  the  time,  but  it  has  no  other  moral  significance, 
when  we  regard  the  characters  as  figuring  the 
relations  of  nations  and  of  events  in  a  purely 
mythological  sense. 

The  same  view  explains  the  impossibility  of 
revoking  the  blessing  obtained  by  imposing  upon 
a  blind  father,  though  one  might  naturally  expect 
it  to  be  turned  into  a  curse.  It  expressed  accom- 
plished facts  which  could  not  be  changed.  The 
"blessings  "  in  rhythmical  form  are  older  than  the 
context,  and  may  have  been  from  poetical  material 
out  of  which  the  substance  of  the  whole  story  was 
extracted.  Esau,  synonymous  with  the  "  shaggy  " 
region  of  Seir,  appears  as  a  hairy  man  in  this  story, 
but  there  is  no  reference  to  the  redness  of  Edom ; 
and  the  name  "Jacob  "  receives  a  different  explana- 
tion from  that  of  the  simpler  tale  of  Chapter  xxv. 
As  in  other  cases,  the  real  or  supposed  meaning 
of   the    names    of    persons    and    places,    together 


THE  TWIN   PEOPLES  1 79 

with  known  characteristics  and  circumstances, 
furnished  the  elements  out  of  which  the  myth 
was  wrought.  No  doubt  the  special  affection 
of  Rebekah  for  Jacob  was  expressive  of  a  close 
amity  between  Syria  and  Israel  and  gave  it 
a  sentimental  bond,  while  Edom  was  repelled 
from  any  alliance  or  attachment  in  that  quarter. 
The  reference  in  the  blessing  of  Jacob  to  his 
"brethren,"  over  whom  he  was  to  be  "lord,"  is 
incidental  evidence  that  all  these  names  and  rela- 
tions pertained  to  lands  and  peoples  and  not  to 
persons,  for  the  story  gives  Jacob  no  brother 
except  Esau.  It  was  the  pre-eminence  of  Israel 
over  kindred  peoples  that  was  expressed,  and  it 
was  to  its  power  that  "  the  nations "  were  to 
bow. 

[XXVI  34-XXVII  45] 

[And  when  Esau  was  forty  years  old  he  took  to 
wife  Judith  the  daughter  of  Beeri  the  Hittite,  and 
Basemath  the  daughter  of  Elon  the  Hittite  ;  and 
they  were  a  grief  of  mind  unto  Isaac  and  to  Re- 
bekah.] 

And  it  came  to  pass,  that  when  Isaac  was  old, 
and  his  eyes  were  dim,  so  that  he  could  not  see,  he 
called  Esau  his  elder  son,  and  said  unto  him,  My 
son  :  and  he  said  unto  him,  Here  am  I.  And  he 
said,  Behold  now,  I  am  old,  I  know  not   the  day 


I  SO  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

of  my  death.  Now  therefore  take,  I  pray  thee, 
thy  weapons,  thy  quiver  and  thy  bow,  and  go  out 
to  the  field,  and  take  me  game ;  and  make  me 
savoury  food,  such  as  I  love,  and  bring  it  to  me,  that 
I  may  eat ;  that  my  soul  may  bless  thee  before  I  die. 

And  Rebekah  heard  when  Isaac  spake  to  Esau 
his  son.  And  Esau  went  to  the  field  to  hunt  for 
game,  and  to  bring  it.  And  Rebekah  spake  unto 
Jacob  her  son,  saying,  Behold,  I  heard  thy  father 
speak  unto  Esau  thy  brother,  saying,  Bring  me 
game,  and  make  me  savoury  food,  that  I  may  eat, 
and  bless  thee  before  the  Lord  before  my  death. 
Now  therefore,  my  son,  obey  my  voice  according 
to  that  which  I  command  thee.  Go  now  to  the 
flock,  and  fetch  me  from  thence  two  good  kids  of 
the  goats  ;  and  I  will  make  them  savoury  food  for 
thy  father,  such  as  he  loveth  ;  and  thou  shalt  bring 
it  to  thy  father,  that  he  may  eat,  so  that  he  may 
bless  thee  before  his  death. 

And  Jacob  said  to  Rebekah  his  mother,  Behold, 
Esau  my  brother  is  a  hairy  man,  and  I  am  a  smooth 
man.  My  father  peradventure  will  feel  me,  and  1 
shall  seem  to  him  as  a  deceiver ;  and  I  shall  bring 
a  curse  upon  me,  and  not  a  blessing.  And  his 
mother  said  unto  him,  Upon  me  be  thy  curse,  my 
son ;  only  obey  my  voice,  and  go  fetch  me  them. 
And  he  went,  and  fetched,  and  brought  them  to 
his  mother ;  and  his  mother  made  savoury  food, 
such  as  his  father  loved.  And  Rebekah  took  the 
goodly  garments  of  Esau  her  elder  son,  which  were 
with  her  in  the  house,  and  put  them  upon  Jacob 


THE  TWIN   PEOPLES  l8l 

her  younger  son ;  and  she  put  the  skins  of  the 
kids  of  the  goats  upon  his  hands,  and  upon  the 
smooth  of  his  neck;  and  she  gave  the  savoury 
meat  and  the  bread,  which  she  had  prepared,  into 
the  hand  of  her  son  Jacob. 

And  he  came  unto  his  father,  and  said,  My  father  : 
and  he  said,  Here  am  I ;  who  art  thou,  my  son  ? 
And  Jacob  said  unto  his  father,  I  am  Esau  thy 
firstborn ;  I  have  done  according  as  thou  badest 
me;  arise,  I  pray  thee,  sit  and  eat  of  my  game, 
that  thy  soul  may  bless  me.  And  Isaac  said  unto 
his  son,  How  is  it  that  thou  hast  found  it  so  quickly, 
my  son  ?  And  he  said,  Because  the  Lord  thy  God 
sent  me  good  speed.  And  Isaac  said  unto  Jacob, 
Come  near,  I  pray  thee,  that  I  may  feel  thee,  my 
son,  whether  thou  be  my  very  son  Esau  or  not. 
And  Jacob  went  near  unto  Isaac  his  father ;  and 
he  felt  him,  and  said,  The  voice  is  Jacob's  voice, 
but  the  hands  are  the  hands  of  Esau. 

And  he  discerned  him  not,  because  his  hands 
were  hairy,  as  his  brother  Esau's  hands ;  so  he 
blessed  him.  And  he  said,  Art  thou  my  very  son 
Esau  ?  And  he  said,  I  am.  And  he  said,  Bring  it 
near  to  me,  and  I  will  eat  of  my  son's  game,  that 
my  soul  may  bless  thee.  And  he  brought  it  near 
to  him,  and  he  did  eat ;  and  he  brought  him  wine, 
and  he  drank. 

And  his  father  Isaac  said  unto  him,  Come  near 
now,  and  kiss  me,  my  son.  And  he  came  near,  and 
kissed  him  ;  and  he  smelled  the  smell  of  his  gar- 
ments, and  blessed  him,  and  said, 


1 82  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

See,  the  smell  of  my  son 

Is  as  the  smell  of  a  field  which  the  Lord  hath  blessed  : 

And  God  give  thee  of  the  dew  of  heaven, 

And  of  the  fatness  of  the  earth, 

And  plenty  of  corn  and  wine  : 

Let  peoples  serve  thee, 

And  nations  bow  down  to  thee  : 

Be  lord  over  thy  brethren, 

And  let  thy  mother's  sons  bow  down  to  thee  : 

Cursed  be  every  one  that  curseth  thee, 

And  blessed  be  every  one  that  blesseth  thee. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  as  soon  as  Isaac  had  made 
an  end  of  blessing  Jacob,  and  Jacob  was  yet  scarce 
gone  out  from  the  presence  of  Isaac  his  father,  that 
Esau  his  brother  came  in  from  his  hunting.  And  he 
also  made  savoury  food,  and  brought  it  unto  his 
father ;  and  he  said  unto  his  father,  Let  my  father 
arise,  and  eat  of  his  son's  game,  that  thy  soul  may 
bless  me.  And  Isaac  his  father  said  unto  him,  Who 
art  thou  ?  And  he  said,  I  am  thy  son,  thy  firstborn, 
Esau.  And  Isaac  trembled  very  exceedingly,  and 
said,  Who  then  is  he  that  hath  taken  game,  and 
brought  it  me,  and  I  have  eaten  of  all  before  thou 
earnest,  and  have  blessed  him?  yea,  and  he  shall 
be  blessed. 

When  Esau  heard  the  words  of  his  father,  he  cried 
with  an  exceeding  great  and  bitter  cry,  and  said  unto 
his  father,  Bless  me,  even  me  also,  O  my  father. 
And  he  said,  Thy  brother  came  with  guile,  and  hath 
taken  away  thy  blessing.     And  he  said,  Is  not  he 


THE  TWIN   PEOPLES  183 

rightly  named  Jacob?  for  he  hath  supplanted  me 
these  two  times  ;  he  took  away  my  birthright,  and, 
behold,  now  he  hath  taken  away  my  blessing.  And 
he  said,  Hast  thou  not  reserved  a  blessing  for  me? 

And  Isaac  answered  and  said  unto  Esau,  Behold, 
I  have  made  him  thy  lord,  and  all  his  brethren  have 
I  given  to  him  for  servants  ;  and  with  grain  and  wine 
have  I  sustained  him  ;  and  what  then  shall  I  do  for 
thee,  my  son?  And  Esau  said  unto  his  father,  Hast 
thou  but  one  blessing,  my  father?  bless  me,  even 
me  also,  O  my  father.  And  Esau  lifted  up  his  voice, 
and  wept.  And  Isaac  his  father  answered  and  said 
unto  him, 

Behold,   of  the  fatness  of  the   earth   shall  be   thy 

dwelling, 
And  of  the  dew  of  heaven  from  above  ; 
And  by  thy  sword  shalt  thou  live,  and  thou   shalt 

serve  thy  brother ; 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  when  thou  shalt  break  loose, 
That  thou  shalt  shake  his  yoke  from  off  thy  neck. 

And  Esau  hated  Jacob  because  of  the  blessing 
wherewith  his  father  blessed  him ;  and  Esau  said  in 
his  heart,  The  days  of  mourning  for  my  father  are 
at  hand ;  then  will  I  slay  my  brother  Jacob.  And 
the  words  of  Esau  her  elder  son  were  told  to  Re- 
bekah ;  and  she  sent  and  called  Jacob  her  younger 
son,  and  said  unto  him,  Behold,  thy  brother  Esau, 
as  touching  thee,  doth  comfort  himself,  purposing  to 
kill  thee.     Now  therefore,  my  son,  obey  my  voice, 


1 84  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

and  arise,  flee  thou  to  Laban  my  brother  to  Haran ; 
and  tarry  with  him  a  few  days,  until  thy  brother's 
fury  turn  away ;  until  thy  brother's  anger  turn  away 
from  thee,  and  he  forget  that  which  thou  hast  done 
to  him  ;  then  1  will  send,  and  fetch  thee  from  thence. 
Why  should  I  be  bereaved  of  you  both  in  one  day  ? 


XXII 

Jacob's  journey  to  syria 

The  migration  of  Jacob  to  Haran  in  the  land 
of  Syria  is  represented  in  the  story  above  cited 
as  due  to  the  anger  of  Esau  and  the  fears  of 
Rebekah.  This  story,  which  is  interrupted  at 
verse  45,  Chapter  xxvii.,  is  resumed  at  verse  10 
of  Chapter  xxviii.,  in  the  familiar  division  of  our 
Bibles.  The  break  is  filled  with  a  passage  —  in 
brackets  below  —  from  a  different  source,  attach- 
ing to  the  fragment  at  the  end  of  Chapter  xxvi. 
Esau  has  been  represented  as  marrying  two  Hit- 
tite  wives,  to  the  grief  of  his  father  and  mother, 
and  now  the  mother  appears  as  determined  that 
Jacob  shall  not  do  likewise,  and  as  sending  him 
with  his  father's  blessing  to  seek  a  wife  among 
her  kinsmen. 

This  prosaic  passage  has  the  qualities  of 
the  Elohist,  who  never  exhibited  Jacob  and 
Esau  (or  Isaac  and  Ishmael)  as  alienated.  It  is 
said  here  that  Esau,  when  he  saw  that  his  father 
was  not  pleased  with  the  daughters  of  Canaan, 
and  had  sent  Jacob  to  Paddan-aram  for  a  wife, 
tried  to  make  amends  by  adding  to  his  own  do- 
mestic circle,  as  a  third  wife,  his  cousin,  a  daugh- 

185 


1 86  the  myths  of  Israel 

tcr  of  Ishmacl.  He  evidently  considered  the  blood 
of  his  father's  family  just  as  good  as  that  of  his 
mother's.  When  the  genealogy  of  Esau  is  intro- 
duced later  on  in  Chapter  xxxvi.,  we  shall  find  that 
one  of  his  Canaanite  wives  is  said  to  be  a  Hittite 
and  one  a  Hivite,  instead  of  both  being  daughters 
of  Heth,  and  that  two  of  the  names  of  his  wives 
are  differently  given,  while  the  third  is  transferred 
from  the  daughter  of  Elon  the  Hittite  to  the 
daughter  of  Ishmael.  These  inconsistencies  are 
important  only  as  showing  once  more  the  charac- 
ter of  the  material  and  the  difference  of  source. 

The  imaginative  quality  and  the  religious  and 
ethnical  purpose  of  the  Jehovist  reappear  strongly 
when  the  story  of  Jacob's  journey  from  Beer- 
sheba  to  Haran  is  resumed,  but  the  writer  is 
evidently  transmuting  an  ancient  myth,  and  the 
touch  of  the  compiler  is  also  seen  in  the  familiar 
phrases  of  the  repeated  promise  of  the  land  to 
Jacob's  posterity.  Evidence  of  the  independent 
origin  of  the  various  legends,  which  pervades  the 
whole  Book  of  Genesis,  appears  distinctly  in  this 
passage.  We  have  seen  Abraham  in  two  widely 
different  characters,  and  when  a  wife  was  sought 
for  Isaac  a  stately  caravan  was  sent,  with  rich 
presents,  to  bring  her  from  a  willing  kindred. 
Though  Isaac  has  also  been  represented  as  attain- 


JACOB'S    JOURNEY  TO   SYRIA  1 87 

ing  wealth  and  greatness,  his  son  goes  forth  alone, 
to  wander  through  the  country  and  seek  favor 
among  his  mother's  people,  afterwards  working  for 
years  as  a  common  herdsman  to  win  his  two  wives. 
In  one  legend,  already  used  by  the  compiler, 
the  consecration  and  naming  of  Bethel  was  attrib- 
uted to  Abraham.  Here  it  is  assigned  to  Jacob 
in  a  more  mystical  way.  The  "angels"  of  the 
dream  were  those  mysterious  manifestations  of 
divinity  in  one  or  many  forms  —  personified  divine 
influences  —  of  which  we  have  noted  other  exam- 
ples. The  same  symbolical  sense  of  the  term 
appears  in  the  "angels  of  God  ascending  and 
descending  upon  the  Son  of  Man  "  in  the  New 
Testament.  But  this  mystical  picture  does  not 
appear  to  have  come  from  the  same  account  as 
that  which  told  of  Jacob's  setting  up  the  stone 
pillar  and  making  his  vow  thereon,  for  in  the 
latter  he  seems  unconscious  of  the  promise  of 
the  dream.  The  statement  of  the  vow  is  quite 
prosaic,  and  evidently  intended  to  assign  a  divine 
origin  to  the  requirement  of  tithes,  as  in  the  scene 
of  Abraham  and  Melchizedek. 

[XXVII  46-XXVIII] 

[And  Rebekah  said  to  Isaac,  I  am  weary  of  my 
life  because  of  the  daughters  of  Heth.    If  Jacob  take 


l88  THE    MYTHS    OF    ISRAEL 

a  wife  of  the  daughters  of  Heth,  such  as  these,  of  the 
daughters  of  the  land,  what  good  shall  my  life  do  me  ? 

And  Isaac  called  Jacob,  and  blessed  him,  and 
charged  him,  and  said  unto  him,  Thou  shalt  not  take 
a  wife  of  the  daughters  of  Canaan.  Arise,  go  to 
Paddan-aram,  to  the  house  of  Bethuel  thy  mother's 
father ;  and  take  thee  a  wife  from  thence  of  the 
daughters  of  Eaban  thy  mother's  brother.  And  , 
God  Almighty  bless  thee,  and  make  thee  fruitful, 
and  multiply  thee,  that  thou  mayest  be  a  company 
of  peoples  ;  and  give  thee  the  blessing  of  Abraham, 
to  thee,  and  to  thy  posterity  with  thee  ;  that  thou 
mayest  inherit  the  land  of  thy  sojournings,  which 
God  gave  unto  Abraham. 

And  Isaac  sent  away  Jacob ;  and  he  went  to 
Paddan-aram  unto  Laban,  son  of  Bethuel  the  Syrian, 
the  brother  of  Rebekah,  Jacob's  and  Esau's  mother. 
Now  Esau  saw  that  Isaac  had  blessed  Jacob  and 
sent  him  away  to  Paddan-aram,  to  take  him  a  wife 
from  thence;  and  that  as  he  blessed  him  he  gave 
him  a  charge,  saying,  Thou  shalt  not  take  a  wife  of 
the  daughters  of  Canaan ;  and  that  Jacob  obeyed 
his  father  and  his  mother,  and  was  gone  to  Paddan- 
aram  :  and  Esau  saw  that  the  daughters  of  Canaan 
pleased  not  Isaac  his  father  \  and  Esau  went  unto 
Ishmael,  and  took  unto  the  wives  which  he  had 
Mahalath  the  daughter  of  Ishmael,  Abraham's  son, 
the  sister  of  Nebaioth,  to  be  his  wife.] 

And  Jacob  went  out  from  Beersheba,  and  went 
toward  Haran.    And  he  lighted  upon  a  certain  place, 


JACOB'S  JOURNEY   TO   SYRIA  1 89 

and  tarried  there  all  night,  because  the  sun  was  set ; 
and  he  took  one  of  the  stones  of  the  place  and  put 
it  under  his  head,  and  lay  down  in  that  place  to 
sleep.  And  he  dreamed,  and  behold  a  ladder  set 
upon  the  earth,  and  the  top  of  it  reached  to  heaven ; 
and  behold  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  de- 
scending on  it. 

And,  behold,  the  Lord  stood  before  him,  and  said, 
I  am  the  Lord  the  God  of  Abraham  thy  father,  and 
the  God  of  Isaac  ;  the  land  whereon  thou  best,  to 
thee  will  I  give  it,  and  to  thy  posterity ;  and  thy 
posterity  shall  be  as  the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  thou 
shalt  spread  abroad  to  the  west,  and  to  the  east,  and 
to  the  north,  and  to  the  south ;  and  in  thee  and  in 
thy  offspring  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed.  And,  behold,  I  am  with  thee,  and  will  keep 
thee  whithersoever  thou  goest,  and  will  bring  thee 
again  into  this  land ;  for  I  will  not  leave  thee  until  I 
have  done  that  which  I  have  spoken  to  thee  of. 

And  Jacob  awaked  out  of  his  sleep,  and  he  said : 
Surely  the  Lord  is  in  this  place,  and  I  knew  it  not ; 
and  he  was  afraid,  and  said,  How  dreadful  is  this 
place  !  this  is  none  other  but  the  house  of  God,  and 
this  is  the  gate  of  heaven. 

And  Jacob  rose  up  early  in  the  morning,  and  took 
the  stone  that  he  had  put  under  his  head,  and  set  it 
up  for  a  pillar,  and  poured  oil  upon  the  top  of  it.  And 
he  called  the  name  of  that  place  Beth-el,  but  the 
name  of  the  city  was  Luz  at  the  first.  And  Jacob 
vowed  a  vow,  saying,  If  God  will  be  with  me,  and 
keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  and  will  give  me  bread 


190  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to 
my  father's  house  in  peace,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my 
God,  and  this  stone,  which  I  have  set  up  for  a  pillar, 
shall  be  God's  house  ;  and  of  all  that  thou  shalt  give 
me  I  will  surely  give  the  tenth  unto  thee. 


XXIII 
Jacob's  double  marriage 

The  ancient  kinship  of  Israel  and  Syria  was 
illustrated  in  the  story  of  Abraham  and  Nahor, 
and  again  in  that  of  the  marriage  of  Isaac  and 
Rebekah.  Still  greater  stress  is  laid  upon  it  in 
the  more  elaborate  story  of  the  double  marriage 
of  Jacob  with  the  daughters  of  Laban,  and  the 
development  therefrom  of  the  several  tribes.  The 
myth  is  in  a  different  tone  from  the  others,  and 
has  a  deeper  and  wider  ethnic  significance.  Its 
Northern,  or  Ephramite,  origin  is  beyond  question, 
and  it  prepares  the  way  for  defining  the  relative 
position  of  the  tribes  from  that  point  of  view. 
The  mother  of  the  most  favored  was  the  beauty 
of  the  Syrian  family,  was  the  younger,  and  is  to 
be  represented  as  barren  until  especially  blessed 
with  offspring,  a  common  device  of  ancient  He- 
brew story  for  exhibiting  divine  preference. 

Brilliant  eyes  were  the  chief  token  of  beauty  to 
Oriental  taste,  and  the  older,  less  favored,  but 
more  prolific  wife  had  dull  ("tender")  eyes.  The 
coming  exaltation   of  Joseph   is   made   evident  in 

191 


192  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

this  idyllic  talc.  In  the  course  of  its  develop- 
ment, four  tribes  are  to  be  set  lower  than  the 
children  of  Leah,  and  represented  as  the  offspring 
of  handmaids.  The  statements,  in  the  account 
of  the  marriage,  of  the  giving  of  the  handmaids 
have  the  appearance  of  being  interjected  by  the 
compiler  to  prepare  the  way  for  later  incidents,  as 
they  break  abruptly  into  the  context.  There  are 
also  indications  of  a  double  source  for  the  main 
story.  The  first  part  speaks  only  of  Rachel  as 
"the  daughter"  of  Laban,  and  Jacob  meets  her 
and  falls  in  love  with  her  at  the  well,  when  his 
superior  strength  is  exhibited  in  rolling  away  the 
stone,  which  the  shepherds  could  only  move  when 
they  came  together  with  their  flocks.  Afterwards 
we  are  informed,  as  if  in  a  different  version  of  the 
tale,  that  Laban  had  two  daughters,  the  younger 
and  more  beautiful  of  whom  Jacob  loved. 

There  is  an  apparent  omission  of  details  belong- 
ing to  varying  material  in  the  scanty  statement  of 
the  bargain  in  a  double  form  by  which  Jacob  in 
one  form  of  statement  was  to  receive  Rachel  as  a 
wife  in  lieu  of  "wages"  for  his  service  to  Laban, 
and  in  the  other  was  to  serve  seven  years  for  the 
wife  in  lieu  of  the  customary  payment  in  Oriental 
contracts  of  the  kind.  The  imposing  of  the  older 
and  undesired  daughter  upon  the  bridegroom  by  a 


JACOB'S   DOUBLE   MARRIAGE  193 

trick,  is  intended  still  further  to  degrade  the  origin 
of  the  other  tribes  in  comparison  with  those  which 
sprang  from  Joseph. 

[XXIX  1-30] 

Then  Jacob  went  on  his  journey,  and  came  to  the 
land  of  the  children  of  the  east.  And  he  looked, 
and  behold  a  well  in  the  field,  and,  lo,  three 
flocks  of  sheep  lying  there  by  it,  for  out  of  that  well 
they  watered  the  flocks  ;  and  the  stone  upon  the 
well's  mouth  was  great.  And  thither  were  all  the 
flocks  gathered ;  and  they  rolled  the  stone  from 
the  well's  mouth,  and  watered  the  sheep,  and  put 
the  stone  again  upon  the  well's  mouth  in  its  place. 

And  Jacob  said  unto  them,  My  brethren,  whence 
are  ye  ?  And  they  said,  Of  Haran  are  we.  And  he 
said  unto  them,  Know  ye  Laban  the  son  of  Nahor? 
And  they  said,  We  know  him.  And  he  said  unto 
them,  Is  it  well  with  him?  And  they  said,  It  is 
well ;  and,  behold,  Rachel  his  daughter  cometh 
with  the  sheep.  And  he  said,  Lo,  it  is  yet  high 
day,  neither  is  it  time  that  the  cattle  should  be 
gathered  together ;  water  ye  the  sheep,  and  go  and 
feed  them.  And  they  said,  We  cannot,  until  all  the 
flocks  be  gathered  together,  and  they  roll  the  stone 
from  the  well's  mouth  ;    then  we  water  the  sheep. 

While  he  yet  spake  with  them,  Rachel  came  with 
her  father's  sheep ;  for  she  kept  them.  And  it 
came  to  pass,  when  Jacob  saw  Rachel  the  daughter 
of  Laban  his  mother's  brother,  and    the   sheep  of 


194  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Laban  his  mother's  brother,  that  Jacob  went  near, 
and  rolled  the  stone  from  the  well's  mouth,  and 
watered  the  flock  of  Laban  his  mother's  brother. 
And  Jacob  kissed  Rachel,  and  lifted  up  his  voice, 
and  wept.  And  Jacob  told  Rachel  that  he  was  her 
father's  brother,  and  that  he  was  Rebekah's  son  ; 
and  she  ran  and  told  her  father. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Laban  heard  the 
tidings  of  Jacob  his  sister's  son,  that  he  ran  to 
meet  him,  and  embraced  him,  and  kissed  him,  and 
brought  him  to  his  house.  And  he  told  Laban  all 
these  things.  And  Laban  said  to  him,  Surely  thou 
art  my  bone  and  my  flesh.  And  he  abode  with  him 
the  space  of  a  month.  And  Laban  said  unto  Jacob, 
Because  thou  art  my  brother,  shouldest  thou  there- 
fore serve  me  for  naught?  tell  me,  what  shall  thy 
wages  be? 

And  Laban  had  two  daughters  ;  the  name  of  the 
elder  was  Leah,  and  the  name  of  the  younger  was 
Rachel.  And  Leah's  eyes  were  dull ;  but  Rachel 
was  beautiful  and  well  favoured.  And  Jacob  loved 
Rachel ;  and  he  said,  I  will  serve  thee  seven  years 
for  Rachel  thy  younger  daughter.  And  Laban 
said,  It  is  better  that  I  give  her  to  thee,  than  that 
I  should  give  her  to  another  man  ;  abide  with  me. 
And  Jacob  served  seven  years  for  Rachel ;  and  they 
seemed  unto  him  but  a  few  days,  for  the  love  he  had 
to  her.  And  Jacob  said  unto  Laban,  Give  me  my 
wife,  for  my  days  are  fulfilled,  that  I  may  go  in  unto 
her. 

And  Laban  gathered  together  all  the  men  of  the 


JACOB'S   DOUBLE   MARRIAGE  1 95 

place,  and  made  a  feast.     And  it  came  to  pass  in 

the  evening,  that  he  took  Leah  his  daughter,    and 

brought   her   to    him ;    and  he   went   in   unto   her. 

[And  Laban   gave  Zilpah   his    handmaid    unto    his 

daughter  Leah  for  an  handmaid.]     And  it  came  to 

pass  in  the  morning  that,  behold,  it  was  Leah  ;  and 

he  said  to  Laban,  What  is  this  thou  hast  done  unto 

me?  did  not  I  serve  with  thee  for  Rachel?  wherefore 

then  hast  thou  beguiled  me?     And  Laban  said,  It 

is  not  so  done  in  our  place,  to  give    the    younger 

before  the  firstborn.      Fulfil  the  week  of  this  one, 

and  we  will  give  thee  the  other  also  for  the  service 

which   thou    shalt    serve  with  me  yet   seven   other 

years.     And  Jacob  did  so,  and  fulfilled  her  week ; 

and   he   gave    him    Rachel    his    daughter   to   wife. 

[And  Laban  gave  to  Rachel  his   daughter   Bilhah 

his  handmaid  to  be  her  handmaid.]     And  he  went 

in  also  unto  Rachel,  and  he  loved  also  Rachel  more 

than    Leah,  and   served  with  him  yet  seven   other 

years. 


XXIV 

THE    BIRTH    OF    JACOB'S    SONS 

The   account  of   the   birth   of   Jacob's    sons    is 
figurative    of   the    origin    of   the    tribes,    as   their 
names  and  relative  standing  were   known   in   the 
writer's   time,    and    regarded    from    his    point    of 
view.     The    actual    origin    of    the    names    is    un- 
known,   and    their    etymological    significance    is 
uncertain,    but   the   fanciful   derivations  given    in 
the  story  come  in  some  cases  from   mere  casual 
resemblance   to    familiar  words  with   which   they 
had   no   real  linguistic   relation.     In    the  case    of 
Issachar  two  applications  are  made  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word   "hire,"  one   indicating  that  the 
name    was   given   because    Leah    had    hired    her 
husband    for   the    night,  and    the    other    because 
she  had  received  her  "  hire  "  for  giving  her  hand- 
maid   to   Jacob.       Zebulun    is    derived    from    two 
words  similar  in  form  but  quite  different  in  mean- 
ing,  one   signifying    dowry  and    the   other  dwell- 
ing.     The   double   derivation    of   Joseph   is   from 
words  quite  opposite  in  meaning,  "asaf,"  to  take 
away,  and   "iasaf,"  to   add.     These   incongruities 

196 


THE   BIRTH   OF  JACOB'S   SONS  1 97 

come  not  simply  from  a  rough  assumption  of  the 
meaning  of  names  which  have  a  resemblance  to 
other  words,  but  from  the  blending  of  statements 
and  phrases  from  different  sources,  by  the  com- 
piler who  made  up  the  narrative  in  its  final 
form. 

With  regard  to  the  giving  of  handmaids  to  the 
husband  by  the  wife  and  the  accepting  of  the 
children  of  such  unions,  it  may  be  noted  that  it 
was  a  recognized  form  of  adopting  such  offspring 
into  the  family.  Without  formality  of  the  kind, 
children  of  such  parentage  were  common,  but 
were  not  recognized  as  legitimate.  Significance 
is  given  to  the  incident  of  the  "love  apples,"  or 
fruit  of  the  mandrake,  by  the  Oriental  belief 
that  they  stimulated  fecundity.  There  is  in  this 
story  of  Jacob  in  Syria  no  question  of  the  birth 
of  Benjamin,  though  in  the  Elohist  genealogy  at 
the  end  of  Chapter  xxxv.  he  is  enumerated  among 
the  sons  of  Jacob  "born  to  him  in  Paddan-aram." 
The  Jehovist  had  a  way  of  his  own  of  accounting 
for  Benjamin.  The  two  brief  statements  which 
are  put  in  brackets  are  foreign  to  the  original 
material  and  apparently  interpolated  by  the  com- 
piler, the  latter  perhaps  in  anticipation  of  an 
episode  in  which  Dinah  figures.  Elsewhere  there 
is  no  definite  reference  to  a  daughter  in  Jacob's 


I98  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

family,  as  there  was  no  occasion  for  any  in   ful- 
filling the  purpose  of  the  ethnical  scheme. 

[XXIX  31-XXX  24] 

And  the  Lord  saw  that  Leah  was  hated,  and  he 
opened  her  womb ;  but  Rachel  was  barren.  And 
Leah  conceived,  and  bare  a  son,  and  she  called  his 
name  Reuben  ;  for  she  said,  Because  the  Lord  hath 
looked  upon  my  affliction  ;  for  now  my  husband  will 
love  me.  And  she  conceived  again,  and  bare  a  son ; 
and  said,  Because  the  Lord  hath  heard  that  I  am 
hated,  he  hath  therefore  given  me  this  son  also  :  and 
she  called  his  name  Simeon.  And  she  conceived 
again,  and  bare  a  son  ;  and  said,  Now  this  time  will 
my  husband  be  joined  unto  me,  because  I  have 
borne  him  three  sons  :  therefore  was  his  name  called 
Levi.  And  she  conceived  again,  and  bare  a  son, 
and  she  said,  This  time  will  I  praise  the  Lord  : 
therefore  she  called  his  name  Judah,  and  she  left 
bearing. 

And  when  Rachel  saw  that  she  bare  Jacob  no 
children,  Rachel  envied  her  sister  ;  and  she  said 
unto  Jacob,  Give  me  children,  or  else  I  die.  [And 
Jacob's  anger  was  kindled  against  Rachel ;  and  he 
said,  Am  I  in  God's  stead,  who  hath  withheld  from 
thee  the  fruit  of  the  womb  ?]  And  she  said,  Behold 
my  maid  Bilhah,  go  in  unto  her,  that  she  may  bear 
upon  my  knees,  and  I  also  may  obtain  children  by 
her.  And  she  gave  him  Bilhah  her  handmaid  to 
wife ;    and  Jacob  went  in  unto  her.     And  Bilhah 


THE   BIRTH   OF  JACOB'S   SONS  1 99 

conceived,  and  bare  Jacob  a  son.  And  Rachel  said, 
God  hath  judged  me,  and  hath  also  heard  my 
voice,  and  hath  given  me  a  son  :  therefore  called 
she  his  name  Dan.  And  Bilhah  Rachel's  handmaid 
conceived  again,  and  bare  Jacob  a  second  son. 
And  Rachel  said,  With  mighty  wrestlings  have  I 
wrestled  with  my  sister,  and  have  prevailed  :  and 
she  called  his  name  Naphtali. 

When  Leah  saw  that  she  had  left  bearing,  she  took 
Zilpah  her  handmaid,  and  gave  her  to  Jacob  to  wife. 
And  Zilpah  Leah's  handmaid  bare  Jacob  a  son.  And 
Leah  said,  Fortunate  !  and  she  called  his  name 
Gad.  And  Zilpah  Leah's  handmaid  bare  Jacob  a 
second  son.  And  Leah  said,  Happy  am  I !  for  the 
daughters  will  call  me  happy  :  and  she  called  his 
name  Asher. 

And  Reuben  went  in  the  days  of  wheat  harvest, 
and  found  love  apples  in  the  field,  and  brought 
them  unto  his  mother  Leah.  Then  Rachel  said  to 
Leah,  Give  me,  I  pray  thee,  of  thy  son's  love  apples. 
And  she  said  unto  her,  Is  it  a  small  matter  that  thou 
hast  taken  away  my  husband?  and  wouldest  thou 
take  away  my  son's  love  apples  also  ?  And  Rachel 
said,  Therefore  he  shall  lie  with  thee  to-night  for 
thy  son's  love  apples. 

And  Jacob  came  from  the  field  in  the  evening, 
and  Leah  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  said,  Thou 
must  come  in  unto  me ;  for  I  have  surely  hired  thee 
with  my  son's  love  apples.  And  he  lay  with  her 
that  night.  And  God  hearkened  unto  Leah,  and 
she  conceived,  and  bare  Jacob  a  fifth  son.     And 


200  THE  MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

Leah  said,  God  hath  given  me  my  hire,  because 
I  gave  my  handmaid  to  my  husband :  and  she 
called  his  name  Issachar.  And  Leah  conceived 
again,  and  bare  a  sixth  son  to  Jacob.  And  Leah 
said,  God  hath  endowed  me  with  a  good  dowry; 
now  will  my  husband  dwell  with  me,  because  I 
have  borne  him  six  sons  :  and  she  called  his  name 
Zebulun.  [And  afterwards  she  bare  a  daughter, 
and  called  her  name  Dinah.] 

And  God  remembered  Rachel,  and  God  heark- 
ened to  her,  and  opened  her  womb.  And  she  con- 
ceived, and  bare  a  son ;  and  said,  God  hath  taken 
away  my  reproach  :  and  she  called  his  name  Joseph, 
saying,  The  Lord  add  to  me  another  son. 


XXV 

JACOB    AND    LABAN ISRAEL    AND  SYRIA 

The  story  of  the  birth  of  Jacob's  sons,  from 
Reuben  to  Joseph,  represents  them  all  as  seeing 
the  light  during  the  second  seven  years  of  the 
father's  service  with  Laban ;  for  it  is  after  the 
birth  of  Joseph  that  Jacob  proposes  to  return  to 
his  own  country,  reminding  Laban  that  he  has 
completed  the  service  to  which  he  was  bound. 
This  indicates  a  tradition  in  the  time  of  the  writer 
that  the  tribes  had  their  origin  in  the  Mesopotamia 
region  and  were  closely  related  to  the  Syrians, 
though  the  latter  were  earlier  possessors  of  the 
land  of  Paddan-aram. 

What  follows  implies  that  by  their  superior 
sagacity  and  thrift,  the  Israelites  tended  to  absorb 
the  wealth  and  power  of  the  country  from  the 
Labanites,  with  the  natural  result  of  producing 
jealousy  and  quarrel.  The  picturesque  story  of 
the  way  in  which  Jacob  grew  rich  at  the  expense 
of  his  uncle  and  father-in-law  by  appropriating  to 
himself  only  the  exceptional  in  the  product  of  the 
flocks  —  the  striped  and  spotted  among  the  goats 

20 1 


202  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

and  the  black  among  the  sheep  —  was  another 
illustration  of  the  divine  favor  that  followed  the 
ancestor  of  the  Israelites.  The  evidence  of  two 
widely  different  forms  of  this  story  in  the  original 
material  is  unmistakable,  and,  as  usual,  the  com- 
piler leaves  us  this  evidence  by  failing  to  efface 
the  inconsistencies. 

One  of  these  versions  shows  the  same  lack  of 
religious  tone,  and  the  same  disposition  to  attrib- 
ute craftiness  to  Jacob  in  his  dealings,  that  ap- 
peared in  the  accounts  of  his  gaining  advantage 
over  his  brother  Esau.  Laban  had  proposed  that 
he  name  his  wages  for  remaining  in  the  service, 
as  affairs  had  prospered  under  his  hand,  and  he 
made  the  offer  of  taking  only  the  striped  and 
spotted  of  the  increase  of  the  goats  and  the  black 
of  the  lambs,  after  having  separated  out  all  such 
from  the  flocks,  so  that  they  should  not  propagate 
therein.  Then  he  resorted  to  the  trick  of  the 
partially  peeled  rods,  which  would  scarcely  prove 
efficacious  in  actual  practice,  though  it  may  serve 
in  a  myth. 

But  when  Jacob  explains  to  his  wives  his  reason 
for  leaving  their  father,  there  is  no  suggestion  of 
this.  He  is  the  one  who  has  been  imposed  upon, 
Laban  having  changed  his  wages  ten  times,  some- 
times giving   him  the  speckled  of  the  flocks  and 


JACOB   AND    LABAN  —  ISRAEL  AND   SYRIA      203 

again  the  streaked  or  the  grisled,  and  so  on.  The 
mature  animals,  thus  marked,  had  not  been  sepa- 
rated from  the  rest,  but  were  made  specially  pro- 
lific by  divine  favor  to  the  defeat  of  all  Laban's 
selfish  designs  and  the  enrichment  of  Jacob.  This 
could  hardly  have  been  drawn  from  the  same  ver- 
sion of  the  story  as  that  which  precedes,  and  the 
transmuting  touch  of  the  devout  Jehovist  is  plainly 
visible,  especially  in  the  appearance  of  God  in  a 
dream,  reminding  of  the  vow  of  Bethel,  and  com- 
manding Jacob  to  return  to  the  land  of  his 
nativity. 

The  response  of  Rachel  and  Leah  is  not  quite 
so  heartless  as  it  seems  in  our  familiar  transla- 
tion. They  were  "  sold "  only  in  the  ordinary 
way  of  disposing  of  daughters  to  husbands,  and 
the  father  had  had  the  benefit  of  the  price  — 
"devoured  our  money"  does  not  fairly  express 
it.  The  subsequent  transfer  of  his  substance,  it  is 
implied,  was  the  act  of  God.  But  when  we  keep 
in  mind  that  all  this  is  a  mythological  represen- 
tation of  the  relations  of  lands  and  of  peoples, 
family  sentiment  does  not  seem  really  to  be  in- 
volved. 

Where  material,  foreign  to  that  mainly  used, 
can  be  distinctly  separated  from  the  context,  it  is 
put  in  brackets  in  the  passage  below.     The  only 


204  T1IK   MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

fragment  that  can  be  identified  as  from  the 
Elohist  document  is  that  at  the  end.  The  others 
are  apparently  due  to  the  Jehovist  narrator  incor- 
porating the  material  of  two  versions  into  one,  or, 
possibly,  it  was  the  compiler  who  modified  the 
Jehovist  story  with  material  foreign  to  it.  The 
only  thing  altogether  beyond  dispute  is  the  com- 
posite character  of  the  account  as  we  have  it. 

[XXX  25-XXXI  18] 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Rachel  had  borne 
Joseph,  that  Jacob  said  unto  Laban,  Send  me  away, 
that  I  may  go  unto  mine  own  place,  and  to  my  coun- 
try. Give  me  my  wives  and  my  children  for  whom 
I  have  served  thee,  and  let  me  go,  for  thou  knowest 
my  service  wherewith  I  have  served  thee. 

And  Laban  said  unto  him,  If  now  I  have  found 
favour  in  thine  eyes,  —  I  have  divined  that  the  Lord 
hath  blessed  me  for  thy  sake.  And  he  said,  Appoint 
me  thy  wages,  and  I  will  give  it.  And  he  said  unto 
him,  Thou  knowest  how  I  have  served  thee,  and 
how  thy  cattle  hath  fared  with  me.  For  it  was 
little  which  thou  hadst  before  I  came,  and  it  hath 
increased  unto  a  multitude ;  and  the  Lord  hath 
blessed  thee  whithersoever  I  turned  ;  and  now  when 
shall  I  provide  for  mine  own  house  also?  And  he 
said,  What  shall  I  give  thee? 

And  Jacob  said,  Thou  shalt  not  give  me  aught ;  if 
thou  wilt  do  this  thing  for  me,  I  will  again  feed  ihy 


JACOB   AND    LABAN  —  ISRAEL  AND   SYRIA      205 

flock  and  keep  it.  I  will  pass  through  all  thy  flock 
to-day,  removing  from  thence  every  speckled  and 
spotted  one,  and  every  black  one  among  the  sheep, 
and  the  spotted  and  speckled  among  the  goats  ;  and 
of  such  shall  be  my  hire.  So  shall  my  righteousness 
answer  for  me  hereafter,  when  thou  shalt  come  con- 
cerning my  hire  that  is  before  thee  ;  every  one  that 
is  not  speckled  and  spotted  among  the  goats,  and 
black  among  the  sheep,  if  found  with  me  shall  be 
counted  stolen.  And  Laban  said,  Behold,  I  would 
it  might  be  according  to  thy  word. 

And  he  removed  that  day  the  he-goats  that  were 
striped  and  spotted,  and  all  the  she-goats  that  were 
speckled  and  spotted,  every  one  that  had  white  in  it, 
and  all  the  black  ones  among  the  sheep,  and  gave 
them  into  the  hand  of  his  sons ;  and  he  set  three 
days'  journey  betwixt  himself  and  Jacob  ;  and  Jacob 
fed  the  rest  of  Laban's  flocks. 

[And  Jacob  took  him  rods  of  fresh  poplar,  and  of 
the  almond  and  of  the  plane  tree  ;  and  peeled  white 
streaks  in  them,  and  made  the  white  appear  which 
was  in  the  rods.  And  he  set  the  rods  which  he  had 
peeled  over  against  the  flocks  in  the  gutters  in  the 
watering  troughs  where  the  flocks  came  to  drink; 
and  they  conceived  when  they  came  to  drink.  And 
the  flocks  conceived  before  the  rods,  and  the  flocks 
brought  forth  striped,  speckled,  and  spotted.]  And 
Jacob  separated  the  lambs,  and  set  the  faces  of  the 
flocks  toward  the  striped  and  all  the  black  in  the 
flock  of  Laban ;  and  he  put  his  own  droves  apart, 
and  put  them  not  unto  Laban's  flock. 


206  THE    MYTHS    OF    ISRAEL 

[And  it  came  to  pass,  whensoever  the  stronger  of 
the  flock  did  conceive,  that  Jacob  laid  the  rods 
before  the  eyes  of  the  flock  in  the  gutters,  that  they 
might  conceive  among  the  rods  ;  but  when  the  flock 
were  feeble,  he  put  them  not  in  ;  so  the  feebler  were 
Laban's,  and  the  stronger  Jacob's.]  And  the  man 
increased  exceedingly,  and  had  large  flocks,  and 
maidservants  and  menservants,  and  camels  and 
asses. 

And  he  heard  the  words  of  Laban's  sons,  saying, 
Jacob  hath  taken  away  all  that  was  our  father's  ;  and 
of  that  which  was  our  father's  hath  he  gotten  all  this 
wealth.  And  Jacob  beheld  the  countenance  of 
Laban,  and,  behold,  it  was  not  toward  him  as  before- 
time.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Jacob,  Return  unto 
the  land  of  thy  fathers,  and  to  thy  kindred ;  and  I 
will  be  with  thee. 

And  Jacob  sent  and  called  Rachel  and  Leah  to 
the  field  unto  his  flock,  and  said  unto  them,  I  see 
your  father's  countenance,  that  it  is  not  toward  me 
as  beforetime  ;  but  the  God  of  my  father  hath  been 
with  me.  And  ye  know  that  with  all  my  power  I 
have  served  your  father.  And  your  father  hath  de- 
ceived me,  and  changed  my  wages  ten  times  ;  but 
God  suffered  him  not  to  hurt  me.  If  he  said  thus, 
The  speckled  shall  be  thy  wages ;  then  all  the  flock 
bare  speckled  :  and  if  he  said  thus,  The  striped  shall 
be  thy  wages  ;  then  bare  all  the  flock  striped.  Thus 
God  hath  taken  away  the  cattle  of  your  father,  and 
given  them  to  me. 

And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  time  that  the  flock  con- 


JACOB   AND   LAB  AN  — ISRAEL   AND   SYRIA      207 

ceived,  that  I  lifted  up  mine  eyes,  and  saw  in  a  dream, 
and,  behold,  the  he-goats  which  leaped  upon  the  flock 
were  striped,  speckled,  and  grisled.  And  the  angel 
of  God  said  unto  me  in  the  dream,  Jacob  !  and  I 
said,  Here  am  I.  And  he  said,  Lift  up  now  thine 
eyes,  and  see,  all  the  he-goats  which  leap  upon  the 
flock  are  striped,  speckled,  and  grisled  ;  for  I  have 
seen  all  that  Laban  doeth  unto  thee.  I  am  the  God 
of  Beth-el,  where  thou  anointedst  a  pillar,  where  thou 
vowedst  a  vow  unto  me  ;  now  arise,  get  thee  out  from 
this  land,  and  return  unto  the  land  of  thy  nativity. 

And  Rachel  and  Leah  answered  and  said  unto 
him,  Is  there  yet  any  portion  or  inheritance  for  us 
in  our  father's  house  ?  Are  we  not  counted  of  him 
strangers?  for  he  hath  sold  us,  and  hath  also  quite 
consumed  the  price  paid  for  us.  For  all  the  riches 
which  God  hath  taken  away  from  our  father,  that  is 
ours  and  our  children's ;  now  then,  whatsoever  God 
hath  said  unto  thee,  do.  [Then  Jacob  rose  up,  and 
set  his  sons  and  his  wives  upon  the  camels  ;  and  he 
carried  away  all  his  cattle,  and  all  his  substance 
which  he  had  gathered,  the  cattle  of  his  getting, 
which  he  had  gathered  in  Paddan-aram,  for  to  go  to 
Isaac  his  father  unto  the  land  of  Canaan.] 


XXVI 

THE    DIVISION    AND    TREATY 

It  is  evident  that  the  compiler  made  another 
change  in  his  material  at  verse  19  of  Chapter  xxxi., 
at  which  point  the  passage  given  below  begins. 
He  had  just  started  Jacob  off  in  a  dignified  man- 
ner with  his  family  on  camels,  and  with  his  cattle 
and  substance,  "to  go  to  Isaac  his  father  unto 
the  land  of  Canaan,"  but  now  we  see  Jacob  in  a 
different  guise,  sneaking  away  toward  the  moun- 
tain of  Gilead,  with  stolen  "gods"  in  the  posses- 
sion of  his  favorite  wife,  and  Laban  pursuing 
after,  and  very  justly  upbraiding  him  for  his 
unworthy  manner  of  taking  leave.  The  quarrel 
growing  out  of  the  theft  of  the  teraphim  and 
the  stealing  away  from  the  country  was  a  rather 
primitive  device  for  explaining  the  ancient  division 
between  Israel  and  Syria,  and  for  leading  up  to 
the  agreement  by  which  the  traditional  boundary 
was  fixed,  and  a  friendly  alliance  established. 

Laban  appears  in  the  more  favorable  light 
throughout  this  incident,  and  it  is  in  a  spirit  of 
kindly  concession  and  not  of  claiming  his  own 
that   he    says   Jacob's    possessions  are  his.     The 

20S 


THE   DIVISION   AND   TREATY  209 

daughters  and  the  children  and  the  flocks  have 
come  from  his  family  and  his  substance,  and  are 
not  those  of  an  alien  or  enemy ;  and  therefore 
is  he  ready  to  enter  into  the  covenant,  confirm- 
ing them  to  his  son-in-law  and  establishing  the 
limits  of  their  future  possessions.  The  statement 
of  the  actual  ceremony  of  treaty-making  is  con- 
fused, and  contains  elements  of  two  accounts ;  for 
in  one  place  Jacob  sets  up  the  stone  pillar  and 
makes  the  heap  of  stones  and  in  another  place 
Laban,  and  there  is  a  double  statement  of  the 
eating  together  as  part  of  the  formality. 

The  relation  of  names  to  the  forming  of  this 
myth  of  the  ancient  separation  and  subsequent 
alliance  of  Israel  and  Syria  is  worthy  of  note. 
The  natural  boundary  was  the  rocky  ridge  of 
Gilead,  which  was  not  etymologically  the  same 
as  Galeed  (a  stone  heap),  and  the  commanding 
height  which  formed  a  military  rallying-place 
had  been  naturally  enough  called  Mizpah,  the 
"watch-tower."  It  will  be  noticed  that  Laban 
is  represented  as  giving  the  Aramaic  name  and 
Jacob  the  Hebrew  name  to  the  same  spot,  at  a 
time  when  their  language  must  have  been  the 
same,  assuming  this  to  be  a  matter  of  history, 
and  long  before  the  Hebrew  forms  of  speech 
had   been    developed    through    contact    with   the 


2IO  1  1 1 1 :    MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

despised  Canaanites  and  the  Phoenicians.  The 
statement  as  to  the  names  is  regarded  by  scholars 
as  foreign  to  the  context,  and  it  may  have  been 
interjected  by  the  compiler. 

Another  conspicuous  place  in  the  same  region 
was  Mahanaim,  which  meant  "two  camps,"  the 
name  coming  from  some  event  perhaps  forgotten 
in  the  writer's  time,  but  he  attributes  it  to  the 
meeting  there  of  "  God's  host."  The  original 
term  for  "angels  of  God"  is  the  same  phrase 
of  which  we  have  spoken  as  signifying  a  kind  of 
symbolical  manifestation  of  deity.  The  ethnical 
significance  of  the  whole  incident  is  directly  re- 
vealed in  the  phrase  "Jacob  and  his  brethren," 
to  designate  one  party  to  the  covenant ;  for,  liter- 
ally speaking,  Jacob  had  no  "brethren  " ;  and  some- 
thing of  the  prevalent  conception  of  deity  appears 
in  the  reference  to  the  separate  gods  of  Abraham 
and  Nahor  and  the  common  gods  (in  the  plural) 
of  their  father.  It  was  long  after  the  writer's 
day  that  the  Israelites  attained  a  clear  concep- 
tion of  God  as  something  more  than  the  special 
deity  of  a  nation  or  a  people. 

[XXXI  19-XXXII  2] 

Now    La  ban  was   gone  to  shear   his  sheep,  and 
Rachel   stole  the  teraphim  that  were   her  father's. 


THE   DIVISION   AND   TREATY  211 

And  Jacob  stole  away  unawares  to  Laban  the  Syrian, 
in  that  he  told  him  not  that  he  fled.  So  he  fled 
with  all  that  he  had  ;  and  he  rose  up,  and  passed 
over  the  River,  and  set  his  face  toward  the  moun- 
tain of  Gilead. 

And  it  was  told  Laban  on  the  third  day  that 
Jacob  was  fled.  And  he  took  his  brethren  with  him, 
and  pursued  after  him  seven  days'  journey;  and  he 
overtook  him  in  the  mountain  of  Gilead.  And  God 
came  to  Laban  the  Syrian  in  a  dream  of  the  night, 
and  said  unto  him,  Take  heed  to  thyself  that  thou 
speak  not  to  Jacob  either  good  or  bad.  And  Laban 
came  up  with  Jacob.  Now  Jacob  had  pitched  his 
tent  in  the  mountain,  and  Laban  with  his  brethren 
pitched  in  the  mountain  of  Gilead. 

And  Laban  said  to  Jacob,  What  hast  thou  done, 
that  thou  hast  stolen  away  unawares  to  me,  and 
carried  away  my  daughters  as  captives  of  the  sword  ? 
Wherefore  didst  thou  flee  secretly,  and  steal  away 
from  me,  and  didst  not  tell  me,  that  I  might 
have  sent  thee  away  with  mirth  and  with  songs, 
with  tabret  and  with  harp ;  and  hast  not  suf- 
fered me  to  kiss  my  sons  and  my  daughters  ?  Now 
hast  thou  done  foolishly.  It  is  in  the  power  of  my 
hand  to  do  you  hurt,  but  the  God  of  your  father 
spake  unto  me  yesternight,  saying,  Take  heed  to 
thyself  that  thou  speak  not  to  Jacob  either  good  or 
bad.  And  now,  though  thou  wouldest  needs  be 
gone,  because  thou  sore  longedst  after  thy  father's 
house,  yet  wherefore  hast  thou  stolen  my  gods? 

And  Jacob  answered  and  said  to  Laban,  Because 


212  THE    MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

I  was  afraid  ;  for  I  said,  Lest  thou  shouldest  take 
thy  daughters  from  me  by  force.  With  whom- 
soever thou  findest  thy  gods,  he  shall  not  live ; 
before  our  brethren  discern  thou  what  is  thine  with 
me,  and  take  it  to  thee.  For  Jacob  knew  not  that 
Rachel  had  stolen  them.  And  Laban  went  into 
Jacob's  tent,  and  into  Leah's  tent,  and  into  the 
tent  of  the  two  maidservants ;  but  he  found  them 
not.  And  he  went  out  of  Leah's  tent,  and  entered 
into  Rachel's  tent.  Now  Rachel  had  taken  the 
teraphim,  and  put  them  under  the  camel's  saddle, 
and  sat  upon  them.  And  Laban  felt  about  all  the 
tent,  but  found  them  not.  And  she  said  to  her 
father,  Let  not  my  lord  be  angry  that  I  cannot  rise 
up  before  thee  ;  for  the  manner  of  women  is  upon 
me.  And  he  searched,  but  found  not  the  teraphim. 
And  Jacob  was  wroth,  and  chode  with  Laban  ; 
and  Jacob  answered  and  said  to  Laban,  What  is 
my  trespass?  what  is  my  sin,  that  thou  hast  hotly 
pursued  after  me?  Whereas  thou  hast  felt  about 
all  my  stuff,  what  hast  thou  found  of  all  thy  house- 
hold stuff?  Set  it  here  before  my  brethren  and  thy 
brethren,  that  they  may  judge  betwixt  us  two. 
This  twenty  years  have  I  been  with  thee  ;  thy  ewes 
and  thy  she-goats  have  not  cast  their  young,  and 
the  rams  of  thy  flocks  have  I  not  eaten.  That 
which  was  torn  of  beasts  I  brought  not  unto  thee, 
I  bare  the  loss  of  it  ;  of  my  hand  didst  thou  require 
it,  whether  stolen  by  day  or  stolen  by  night.  Thus 
I  was;  in  the  day  the  drought  consumed  me,  and 
the  frost  by  night ;  and  my  sleep    fled   from  mine 


THE  DIVISION   AND   TREATY  213 

eyes.  These  twenty  years  have  I  been  in  thy 
house ;  I  served  thee  fourteen  years  for  thy  two 
daughters,  and  six  years  for  thy  flock ;  and  thou 
hast  changed  my  wages  ten  times.  Except  the  God 
of  my  father,  the  God  of  Abraham,  whom  Isaac 
feared,  had  been  with  me,  surely  now  hadst  thou 
sent  me  away  empty.  God  hath  seen  mine  afflic- 
tion and  the  labour  of  my  hands,  and  rebuked  thee- 
yesternight. 

And  Laban  answered  and  said  unto  Jacob,  The 
daughters  are  my  daughters,  and  the  children  are 
my  children,  and  the  flocks  are  my  flocks,  and  all 
that  thou  seest  is  mine ;  and  what  can  I  do  this 
day  unto  these  my  daughters,  or  unto  their  children 
which  they  have  borne?  And  now  come,  let  us 
make  a  covenant,  I  and  thou  ;  and  let  it  be  for  a 
witness  between  me  and  thee. 

And  Jacob  took  a  stone,  and  set  it  up  for  a 
pillar.  And  Jacob  said  unto  his  brethren,  Gather 
stones ;  and  they  took  stones,  and  made  a  heap ; 
and  they  did  eat  there  by  the  heap.  [And  La- 
ban  called  it  Jegar-sahadutha ;  but  Jacob  called  it 
Galeed.]  And  Laban  said,  This  heap  is  witness 
between  me  and  thee  this  day.  Therefore  was  the 
name  of  it  called  Galeed,  and  Mizpah ;  for  he  said, 
The  Lord  watch  between  me  and  thee,  when  we 
are  absent  one  from  another.  If  thou  shalt  afflict 
my  daughters,  and  if  thou  shalt  take  wives  beside 
my  daughters,  no  man  is  with  us ;  see,  God  is  wit- 
ness betwixt  me  and  thee. 

And  Laban  said  to  Jacob,  Behold  this  heap,  and 


214  TI1E   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

behold  the  pillar,  which  I  have  set  betwixt  me  and 
thee.  This  heap  be  witness,  and  the  pillar  be  wit- 
ness, that  I  will  not  pass  over  this  heap  to  thee, 
and  that  thou  shalt  not  pass  over  this  heap  and 
this  pillar  unto  me,  for  harm.  The  God  of  Abra- 
ham, and  the  God  of  Nahor,  the  gods  of  their 
father,  judge  betwixt  us.  And  Jacob  sware  by  the 
God  whom  his  father  Isaac  feared.  And  Jacob 
offered  a  sacrifice  in  the  mountain,  and  called  his 
brethren  to  eat  bread  ;  and  they  did  eat  bread,  and 
tarried  all  night  in  the  mountain.  And  early  in  the 
morning  Laban  rose  up,  and  kissed  his  sons  and  his 
daughters,  and  blessed  them ;  and  Laban  departed, 
and  returned  unto  his  place.  And  Jacob  went  on 
his  way,  and  the  angels  of  God  met  him.  And 
Jacob  said  when  he  saw  them,  This  is  God's  host : 
and  he  called  the  name  of  that  place  Mahanaim. 


XXVII 

JACOB  AND  ESAU ISRAEL  AND  EDOM 

If  we  were  dealing  with  accounts  of  actual  per- 
sonal conduct,  it  would  seem  like  a  foolish  pro- 
ceeding for  Jacob,  on  his  way  from  Syria  to  the 
northern  part  of  Canaan,  to  send  word  to  Esau  in 
the  distant  land  of  Seir,  and  then  to  exhibit  such 
dread  of  meeting  him.  But  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  story  of  a  personal  meeting  is  a  mythical 
embodiment  of  traditions  of  an  encounter  with 
Edomites  in  the  early  migration  from  the  North 
and  a  truce  by  which  peaceable  relations  were 
established.  What  appears  both  foolish  and  cow- 
ardly as  personal  behavior  represents  actual  con- 
ditions and  relations  in  the  conduct  of  tribes,  of 
which  one  was  warlike  and  had  fixed  possessions, 
and  the  other  was  peaceable  and  nomadic. 

It  was  consistent  with  the  theocratic  spirit, 
which  began  with  the  early  Hebrew  writers,  to 
acknowledge  the  superior  warlike  qualities  of 
Edom,  and  to  represent  Israel  in  a  submissive, 
not  to  say  cowardly,  attitude,  and  as  escaping 
hostility    by    crafty    evasion    and   the    making    of 

2I5 


2l6  THE   MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

presents.  While  it  seems  craven  in  personal  con- 
duct, it  is  expressive  of  the  policy  solemnly  incul- 
cated by  those  who  taught  reliance  upon  Jehovah 
in  all  national  troubles. 

The  story  of  Jacob's  encounter  with  Esau, 
near  the  northern  boundary  of  Israel's  future 
possessions  east  of  the  Jordan,  is  broken  into  two 
parts  by  the  interpolation  of  one  of  those  mystical 
episodes  of  which  the  Jehovist  narrator  was  so 
fond,  and  both  parts  show  the  usual  evidence  of 
diversity  of  material  which  was  imperfectly  blended 
by  the  compiler.  In  the  first  part  suggestions 
from  the  meaning  of  Mahanaira  appear  in  the 
relation  of  Jacob's  devices  for  escaping  what  he 
assumes  will  be  the  anger  of  a  wronged  brother ; 
but  they  appear  in  two  different  forms.  First  we 
are  told  that  Jacob  divided  his  caravan  into  two 
companies,  so  that  if  Esau  attacked  one  the  other 
might  escape.  Then,  after  the  prayer  for  deliver- 
ance, the  twofold  division  appears  again  in  the 
sending  forward  of  flocks  and  herds  as  a  present 
to  appease  Esau,  separated  by  a  safe  distance 
from  the  family. 

The  episode  of  the  wrestling  by  the  ford  is  a 
curious  example  of  the  evolution  of  mythical 
meanings  from  the  names  of  places  and  persons 
and  from  familiar  facts.     The  name  of  the  brook 


JACOB   AND   ESAU  — ISRAEL   AND   EDOM       217 

Jabbok  resembled  a  word  meaning  "to  wrestle." 
Peniel  or  Penuel  meant,  or  appeared  to  mean, 
"the  face  of  God."  The  word  "Israel,"  which  had 
been  the  designation  of  that  branch  of  the  He- 
brew race  which  took  possession  of  Canaan  from 
time  immemorial,  while  Jacob  was  a  poetical  and 
oratorical  equivalent  for  the  same  people,  was  of 
doubtful  derivation,  but  was  assumed  to  mean 
God's  warrior  or  champion.  There  is  no  refer- 
ence elsewhere  to  the  custom  of  not  eating  the 
sinew  from  the  hollow  of  the  thigh,  but  it  is  here 
assumed  to  be  a  custom.  Out  of  these  elements 
was  formed  the  story  whose  main  purpose  seems 
to  be  to  account  for  the  name  "  Israel,"  and  to  exalt 
Jacob  not  only  as  one  who  contended  for  God,  but 
contended  with  him  and  prevailed.  The  explana- 
tory statement  that  "the  children  of  Israel  eat  not 
the  sinew  of  the  hip"  seems  to  drop  one  suddenly 
from  the  realm  of  myth  to  the  compiler's  prosaic 
time. 

After  this  interruption  the  story  of  the  meeting 
with  Esau  is  resumed  in  a  form  little  correspond- 
ing to  the  preparation,  and  having  no  relation  to 
the  probabilities  of  actual  personal  experience. 
The  family  is  ranged  in  three  divisions  in  the 
reverse  order  of  the  rank  of  the  tribes,  regarded 
from  the  Josephite  writer's  point  of  view,  because 


2l8  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

there  is  assumed  to  be  danger  at  the  front  in 
meeting  "  my  lord  "  Esau.  But  the  chief  of  Edom 
proves  gracious  to  his  humble  kindred,  and  reluc- 
tant to  accept  the  proffered  gift.  There  is  a  mar- 
vellous condensation  of  ethnical  meaning  and  ex- 
pression of  Israelite  traits  in  Jacob's  simulation 
of  joy  at  meeting  his  powerful  brother,  and  in  his 
device  for  separation  from  him  under  pretence  of 
following  him  to  the  land  of  Seir,  while  avoiding 
the  proffered  escort. 

Doubtless  this  all  belongs  to  the  folk-lore  of  a 
time  when  Israel  was  suspicious  and  fearful  of 
the  power  of  the  warlike  Edom,  and  had  either 
established  relations  of  peace  or  was  anxious  to 
do  so,  and  it  was  associated  in  the  story  with  the 
migration  from  Mesopotamia  to  Canaan,  after  the 
division  of  territory  with  Syria,  when  there  might 
well  have  been  fears  of  encountering  Edomites 
from  the  South.  Jacob's  pretended  purpose  of 
following  his  brother  home  was  of  course  imme- 
diately forgotten,  and  he  established  his  people's 
right  of  possession  on  the  east  of  the  Jordan  by 
building  a  house  and  calling  the  place  Succoth. 
The  proof  of  this  was  the  existence  of  such  a 
place,  the  name  meaning  virtually  "cattle-sheds." 


JACOB   AND   ESAU  — ISRAEL   AND    EDOM       219 
[XXXII  3-XXXIII  17] 

And  Jacob  sent  messengers  before  him  to  Esau 
his  brother  unto  the  land  of  Seir,  the  field  of  Edom. 
And  he  commanded  them,  saying,  Thus  shall  ye  say 
unto  my  lord  Esau ;  Thus  saith  thy  servant  Jacob, 
I  have  sojourned  with  Laban,  and  stayed  until  now ; 
and  I  have  oxen,  and  asses  and  flocks,  and  men- 
servants  and  maidservants  ;  and  I  have  sent  to  tell 
my  lord,  that  I  may  find  grace  in  thy  sight. 

And  the  messengers  returned  to  Jacob,  saying, 
We  came  to  thy  brother  Esau,  and  moreover  he 
cometh  to  meet  thee,  and  four  hundred  men  with 
him.  Then  Jacob  was  greatly  afraid  and  was  dis- 
tressed ;  and  he  divided  the  people  that  were  with 
him,  and  the  flocks,  and  the  herds,  and  the  camels, 
into  two  companies ;  and  he  said,  If  Esau  come  to 
the  one  company,  and  smite  it,  then  the  company 
which  is  left  shall  escape. 

And  Jacob  said,  O  God  of  my  father  Abraham, 
and  God  of  my  father  Isaac,  O  Lord,  which  saidst 
unto  me,  Return  unto  thy  country,  and  to  thy  kin- 
dred, and  I  will  do  thee  good :  I  am  not  worthy  of 
the  least  of  all  the  mercies,  and  of  all  the  truth, 
which  thou  hast  shewed  unto  thy  servant ;  for  with 
my  staff  I  passed  over  this  Jordan ;  and  now  I  am 
become  two  companies.  Deliver  me,  I  pray  thee, 
from  the  hand  of  my  brother,  from  the  hand  of 
Esau  ;  for  I  fear  him,  lest  he  come  and  smite  me, 
the  mother  with  the  children.  And  thou  saidst,  I 
will  surely  do  thee  good,  and  make  thy  posterity  as 


220  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

the  sand  of  the  sea,  which  cannot  be  numbered  for 
multitude. 

And  he  lodged  there  that  night ;  and  took  of  that 
which  he  had  with  him  a  present  for  Esau  his 
brother ;  two  hundred  she-goats  and  twenty  he- 
goats,  two  hundred  ewes  and  twenty  rams,  thirty 
milch  camels  and  their  colts,  forty  kine  and  ten 
bulls,  twenty  she-asses  and  ten  foals.  And  he  de- 
livered them  into  the  hand  of  his  servants,  every 
drove  by  itself;  and  said  unto  his  servants,  Pass 
over  before  me,  and  put  a  space  betwixt  drove  and 
drove.  And  he  commanded  the  foremost,  saying, 
When  Esau  my  brother  meeteth  thee,  and  asketh 
thee,  saying,  Whose  art  thou?  and  whither  goest 
thou  ?  and  whose  are  these  before  thee  ?  then  thou 
shalt  say,  They  are  thy  servant  Jacob's ;  it  is  a  pres- 
ent sent  unto  my  lord  Esau,  and,  behold,  he  also 
is  behind  us.  And  he  commanded  also  the  second, 
and  the  third,  and  all  that  followed  the  droves,  say- 
ing, On  this  manner  shall  ye  speak  unto  Esau,  when 
ye  find  him  ;  and  ye  shall  say,  Moreover,  behold, 
thy  servant  Jacob  is  behind  us.  For  he  said,  I  will 
appease  him  with  the  present  that  goeth  before  me, 
and  afterward  I  will  see  his  face;  peradventure  he 
will  accept  me.  So  the  present  passed  over  before 
him ;  and  he  himself  lodged  that  night  in  the 
company. 

And  he  rose  up  that  night,  and  took  his  two 
wives,  and  his  two  handmaids,  and  his  eleven  chil- 
dren, and  passed   over  the   ford  of  Jabbok.     And 


JACOB   AND    ESAU  — ISRAEL   AND   EDOM       221 

he  took  them,  and  sent  them  over  the  stream,  and 
sent  over  that  he  had. 

And  Jacob  was  left  alone ;  and  there  wrestled  a 
man  with  him  until  the  breaking  of  the  day.  And 
when  he  saw  that  he  prevailed  not  against  him,  he 
touched  the  hollow  of  his  thigh ;  and  the  hollow  of 
Jacob's  thigh  was  strained,  as  he  wrestled  with  him. 
And  he  said,  Let  me  go,  for  the  day  break eth.  And 
he  said,  I  will  not  let  thee  go,  except  thou  bless  me. 

And  he  said  unto  him,  What  is  thy  name  ?  And 
he  said,  Jacob.  And  he  said,  Thy  name  shall  be 
called  no  more  Jacob,  but  Israel ;  for  thou  hast 
striven  with  God  and  with  men,  and  hast  prevailed. 
And  Jacob  asked  him,  and  said,  Tell  me,  I  pray 
thee,  thy  name.  And  he  said,  Wherefore  is  it  that 
thou  dost  ask  after  my  name?  And  he  blessed  him 
there.  And  Jacob  called  the  name  of  the  place 
Peniel ;  for,  said  he,  I  have  seen  God  face  to  face, 
and  my  life  is  preserved.  And  the  sun  rose  upon 
him  as  he  passed  over  Penuel,  and  he  went  halting 
upon  his  thigh.  [Therefore  the  children  of  Israel 
eat  not  the  sinew  of  the  hip  which  is  upon  the 
hollow  of  the  thigh,  unto  this  day ;  because  he 
touched  the  hollow  of  Jacob's  thigh  in  the  sinew 
of  the  hip.] 

And  Jacob  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  looked,  and, 
behold,  Esau  came,  and  with  him  four  hundred 
men.  And  he  divided  the  children  unto  Leah,  and 
unto  Rachel,  and  unto  the  two  handmaids.     And 


222  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

he  put  the  handmaids  and  their  children  foremost, 
and  Leah  and  her  children  after,  and  Rachel  and 
Joseph  hindermost.  And  he  himself  passed  over 
before  them,  and  bowed  himself  to  the  ground  seven 
times,  until  he  came  near  to  his  brother. 

And  Esau  ran  to  meet  him,  and  embraced  him, 
and  fell  on  his  neck,  and  kissed  him ;  and  they 
wept.  And  he  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  saw  the 
women  and  the  children  ;  and  said,  Who  are  these 
with  thee?  And  he  said,  The  children  which  God 
hath  graciously  given  thy  servant.  Then  the  hand- 
maids came  near,  they  and  their  children,  and  they 
bowed  themselves.  And  Leah  also  and  her  children 
came  near,  and  bowed  themselves  ;  and  after  came 
Joseph  near  and  Rachel,  and  they  bowed  themselves. 

And  he  said,  What  meanest  thou  by  all  this  com- 
pany which  I  met?  And  he  said,  To  find  grace 
in  the  sight  of  my  lord.  And  Esau  said,  I  have 
enough  ;  my  brother,  let  that  thou  hast  be  thine. 
And  Jacob  said,  Nay,  I  pray  thee,  if  now  I  have 
found  grace  in  thy  sight,  then  receive  my  present 
at  my  hand ;  forasmuch  as  I  have  seen  thy  face,  as 
one  seeth  the  face  of  God,  and  thou  wast  pleased 
with  me.  Take,  I  pray  thee,  my  gift  that  is  brought 
to  thee ;  because  God  hath  dealt  graciously  with 
me,  and  because  I  have  enough.  And  he  urged 
him,  and  he  took  it. 

And  he  said,  Let  us  take  our  journey,  and  let  us 
go,  and  I  will  go  before  thee.  And  he  said  unto 
him,  My  lord  knoweth  that  the  children  are  tender, 
and  that  the  flocks  and  herds  with  me  have  their 


JACOB  AND  ESAU  — ISRAEL  AND  EDOM   223 

young ;  and  if  they  overdrive  them  one  day,  all  the 
flocks  will  die.  Let  my  lord,  I  pray  thee,  pass  over 
before  his  servant ;  and  I  will  lead  on  slowly,  accord- 
ing to  the  pace  of  the  cattle  that  is  before  me  and 
according  to  the  pace  of  the  children,  until  I  come 
unto  my  lord  unto  Seir.  And  Esau  said,  Let  me 
now  leave  with  thee  some  of  the  folk  that  are  with 
me.  And  he  said,  What  needeth  it?  let  me  find 
grace  in  the  sight  of  my  lord.  So  Esau  returned 
that  day  on  his  way  unto  Seir.  And  Jacob  jour- 
neyed to  Succoth,  and  built  him  an  house,  and 
made  booths  for  his  cattle  ;  therefore  the  name  of 
the  place  is  called  Succoth. 


XXVIII 

AT  SHECHEM THE  STORY  OF  DINAH 

There  is  no  account  in  the  compiler's  narra- 
tive of  Jacob  crossing  the  Jordan  and  making  his 
way  over  the  country,  but  we  are  suddenly  told 
that  he  came  in  peace  to  Shechem  and  encamped 
before  the  city.  This  statement  (in  italics  below) 
is  from  the  Elohist.  He  bought  ground  and 
built  an  altar,  which  symbolized  in  the  Jehovist 
story,  from  which  this  was  derived,  the  taking 
possession  of  the  country. 

The  statements  of  the  arrival  at  Shechem  served 
to  introduce  the  curious  tale  of  Dinah,  the  sole 
daughter  of  Jacob,  whose  birth  in  Paddan-aram 
has  been  barely  mentioned.  The  purely  ethnic 
and  mythic  character  of  this  tale  is  revealed 
throughout  in  the  most  artless  manner.  She- 
chem is  used  indifferently  as  a  place  and  as  a 
person.  In  the  outrage  upon  Dinah  he  is  said 
to  have  "wrought  folly  in  Israel"  at  a  time  when 
"Israel"  is  supposed  to  be  a  personal  name  for 
Jacob,   according  to  one  account   just   conferred, 

224 


AT   SHECHEM  —  THE   STORY   OF   DINAH        225 

and  according  to  another  not  yet  conferred,  by- 
divine  designation. 

Again,  the  connecting  passage  of  the  compiler 
represents  Jacob  as  having  just  arrived  from 
Paddan-aram,  all  his  children,  including  Dinah, 
having  been  born  within  the  last  dozen  years,  and 
being  too  "tender"  on  the  journey  to  admit  of 
the  caravan  keeping  pace  with  Esau's  march.  And 
yet  here  his  sons  appear  not  merely  as  grown-up 
men,  but  as  promising  on  certain  conditions  to 
give  their  daughters  as  wives  to  the  men  of  the 
land,  while  Simeon  and  Levi  are  such  formidable 
warriors  as  to  inflict  indiscriminate  slaughter  upon 
the  males  of  Shechem,  to  spoil  the  city,  take  the 
women  and  children  captive,  and  appropriate  the 
wealth  of  the  place. 

It  needs  no  argument  to  prove  that  all  this  has 
no  relation  to  literal  facts.  The  story  seems  to 
have  been  made  up  from  two  versions  sufficiently 
wrought  together  to  destroy  their  separate  iden- 
tity, but  not  sufficiently  to  efface  the  signs  of  dif- 
ference. The  account  of  the  proposal  of  marriage 
between  Shechem  and  Dinah  and  of  a  general 
intermarriage  was  originally  independent  of  that 
of  the  violation  of  the  maiden,  and  a  bewildering 
mixture  of  purposes  confuses  the  passage  as  it 
stands. 

Q 


226  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

In  many  ways  in  these  old  writings  was  the 
injunction  conveyed  that  there  should  be  no  mar- 
rying with  the  native  people  of  the  land,  who 
should  the  rather  be  exterminated,  as  with  the 
sword  of  Simeon  and  Levi.  In  some  elements 
of  this  story  there  appears  evidence  of  a  desire 
to  degrade  the  children  of  Leah,  and  one  possi- 
ble purpose  of  the  incident  of  the  slaughter  at 
Shechem  was  to  displace  from  popular  memory, 
at  a  time  when  it  was  the  sole  repository  of  pass- 
ing records,  the  actual  occurrence  of  outrage  and 
bloodshed  in  the  days  of  the  "  judges,"  when 
Gideon's  son  Abimelech,  an  Ephraimite,  tried  to 
make  himself  king. 

Some  critics  have  undertaken  so  to  divide  the 
story  of  Dinah  as  to  exhibit  the  elements  of  the 
two  versions,  of  which  one  represents  the  maiden 
as  being  abused  by  Shechem  (to  the  vindictive 
wrath  of  her  brothers),  and  the  other  relates  a 
friendly  effort  to  secure  her  marriage  with  the 
Son  of  Hamor,  and  a  general  intermarriage  be- 
tween the  two  peoples,  which  was  met  by  a 
treacherous  device  of  the  sons  of  Jacob  to  de- 
stroy the  Shechemites  and  get  possession  of 
their  wealth.  These  two  are  supposed  to  have 
been  combined  by  the  compiler  by  the  simple 
process  of  patching  together  passages  from  each 


AT   SHECHEM  — THE   STORY   OF   DINAH        227 

in  such  a  manner  as  to  produce  the  appearance  of 
a  single  narrative.  As  a  matter  of  curious  inter- 
est, the  story  is  so  divided  below  as  to  exhibit 
these  diverse  elements  in  alternative  paragraphs. 
According  to  Lenormant,  that  which  begins 
with  Dinah's  going  out  to  visit  the  daughters 
of  the  land,  and  gives  an  account  of  innocent 
efforts  to  bring  about  a  marriage,  ending  with 
the  treacherous  violence  of  Simeon  and  Levi, 
and  Jacob's  rebuke  of  their  conduct,  was  con- 
tained in  the  Elohist  document,  while  that 
which  told  of  the  defiling  of  Dinah  and  the 
attempted  reparation  by  marriage,  and  speaks 
of  the  revenge  of  the  "Sons  of  Jacob"  without 
mentioning  names,  was  from  the  Jehovist.  It 
will  be  observed  that  neither  designation  for  the 
deity  appears  at  all,  and  there  is  no  religious 
quality  in  the  story.  There  certainly  appears  to 
have  been  two  of  these  tales,  the  main  purpose 
of  which  was  to  serve  as  a  warning  against 
intermarriage  with  the  Canaanites  and  to  beget 
an  aversion  to  it.  The  compiler,  instead  of 
adopting  one  in  preference  to  the  other,  under- 
took to  make  one  out  of  the  two.  To  make 
clearer  the  distinction  between  what  are  regarded 
as  different  sources,  the  paragraphs  credited  to 
the  less  prominent  are  put  in  brackets. 


228  THE   MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 


[XXXIII  18-XXXIV] 


And  Jacob  came  in  peace  to  the  city  of  Shechem, 
which  is  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  10h.cn  he  came  from 
PaJdan-aram  ;  and  encamped  before  the  city.  And 
he  bought  the  parcel  of  ground,  where  he  had 
spread  his  tent,  at  the  hand  of  the  children  of 
Hamor,  Shechem's  father,  for  an  hundred  pieces  of 
money.  And  he  erected  there  an  altar,  and  called 
it  El-elohe-Israel. 

And  Dinah  the  daughter  of  Leah,  which  she  bare 
unto  Jacob,  went  out  to  see  the  daughters  of  the 
land.  And  Shechem  the  son  of  Hamor  the  Hivite, 
the  prince  of  the  land,  saw  her  ; 

[And  he  took  her,  and  lay  with  her,  and  humbled 
her.  And  his  soul  clave  unto  Dinah  the  daughter 
of  Jacob,  and  he  loved  the  damsel,  and  spake 
kindly  unto  the  damsel.] 

And  Shechem  spake  unto  his  father  Hamor,  say- 
ing, Get  me  this  damsel  to  wife. 

[Now  Jacob  heard  that  he  had  defiled  Dinah  his 
daughter,  and  his  sons  were  with  his  cattle  in  the 
field  ;  and  Jacob  held  his  peace  until  they  came.] 

And  Hamor  the  father  of  Shechem  went  out  unto 
Jacob  to  commune  with  him. 

[And  the  sons  of  Jacob  came  in  from  the  field 
when  they  heard  it ;  and  the  men  were  grieved, 
and  they  were  very  wroth,  because  he  had  wrought 
folly  in  Israel  in  lying  with  Jacob's  daughter ;  which 
thing  ought  not  to  be  done.] 


AT   SHECHEM  — THE   STORY   OF   DINAH        229 

And  Hamor  communed  with  them,  saying,  The 
soul  of  my  son  Shechem  longeth  for  your  daughter  ; 
I  pray  you  give  her  unto  him  to  wife.  And  make 
ye  marriages  with  us  ;  give  your  daughters  unto  us, 
and  take  our  daughters  unto  you.  And  ye  shall 
dwell  with  us ;  and  the  land  shall  be  before  you ; 
dwell  and  trade  ye  therein,  and  get  you  possessions 
therein. 

[And  Shechem  said  unto  her  father  and  unto  her 
brethren,  Let  me  find  grace  in  your  eyes,  and  what 
ye  shall  say  unto  me  I  will  give.  Ask  me  never  so 
much  dowry  and  gift,  and  I  will  give  according  as 
ye  shall  say  unto  me ;  but  give  me  the  damsel  to 
wife.  And  the  sons  of  Jacob  answered  Shechem 
and  Hamor  his  father  with  guile,  and  spake,  be- 
cause he  had  defiled  Dinah  their  sister,  and  said 
unto  them,  We  cannot  do  this  thing,  to  give  our 
sister  to  one  that  is  uncircumcised ;  for  that  were 
a  reproach  unto  us :] 

Only  on  this  condition  will  we  consent  unto  you  : 
if  ye  will  be  as  we  be,  that  every  male  of  you  be 
circumcised ;  then  will  we  give  our  daughters  unto 
you,  and  we  will  take  your  daughters  to  us,  and 
we  will  dwell  with  you,  and  we  will  become  one 
people.  But  if  ye  will  not  hearken  unto  us,  to  be 
circumcised ;  then  will  we  take  our  daughter,  and 
we  will  be  gone.  And  their  words  pleased  Hamor, 
and  Shechem  Hamor's  son. 

[And  the  young  man  deferred  not  to  do  the  thing, 
because  he  had  delight  in  Jacob's  daughter ;  and  he 
was  honoured  above  all  the  house  of  his  father.] 


230  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

And  Hamor  and  Shechem  his  son  came  unto  the 
gate  of  their  city,  and  communed  with  the  men  of 
their  city,  saying,  These  men  are  peaceable  with 
us ;  therefore  let  them  dwell  in  the  land,  and  trade 
therein ;  for,  behold,  the  land  is  large  enough  for 
them ;  let  us  take  their  daughters  to  us  for  wives, 
and  let  us  give  them  our  daughters.  Only  on  this 
condition  will  the  men  consent  unto  us  to  dwell 
with  us,  to  become  one  people,  if  every  male  among 
us  be  circumcised,  as  they  are  circumcised.  Shall 
not  their  cattle  and  their  substance  and  all  their 
beasts  be  ours?  only  let  us  consent  unto  them,  and 
they  will  dwell  with  us.  And  unto  Hamor  and  unto 
Shechem  his  son  hearkened  all  that  went  out  of  the 
gate  of  his  city ;  and  every  male  was  circumcised, 
all  that  went  out  of  the  gate  of  his  city.  And  it 
came  to  pass  on  the  third  day,  when  they  were  sore, 
that  two  of  the  sons  of  Jacob,  Simeon  and  Levi, 
Dinah's  brethren,  took  each  man  his  sword,  and 
came  upon  the  city  unawares,  and  slew  all  the  males. 

[And  they  slew  Hamor  and  Shechem  his  son  with 
the  edge  of  the  sword,  and  took  Dinah  out  of  She- 
chem's  house,  and  went  forth.  The  sons  of  Jacob 
came  upon  the  slain,  and  spoiled  the  city,  because 
they  had  defiled  their  sister.] 

They  took  their  flocks  and  their  herds  and  their 
asses,  and  that  which  was  in  the  city,  and  that  which 
was  in  the  field; 

[And  all  their  wealth,  and  all  their  little  ones  and 
their  wives,  took  they  captive  and  spoiled,  even  all 
that  was  in  the  house.] 


AT   SHECHEM—  THE   STORY   OF   DINAH        23  I 

And  Jacob  said  to  Simeon  and  Levi,  Ye  have 
troubled  me,  to  make  me  odious  among  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  land,  among  the  Canaanites  and  the 
Perizzites ;  and,  I  being  few  in  number,  they  will 
gather  themselves  together  against  me  and  smite 
me ;  and  I  shall  be  destroyed,  I  and  my  house. 

[And  they  said,  Should  he  deal  with  our  sister  as 
with  an  harlot?] 


XXIX 


BETHEL    AND    AFTER 


Not  only  is  there  another  complete  change  in 
the  character  and  tone  of  the  narrative  at  the 
beginning  of  Chapter  xxxv.  but  that  chapter 
is  made  up  of  three  passages  quite  distinct  from 
each  other,  and  containing  plain  evidences  of  a 
difference  in  their  sources,  though  there  are  con- 
spicuous indications  in  all  three  that  the  Elohist 
document  was  again  drawn  upon.  In  fact,  the 
genealogical  passage  at  the  end  seems  to  be 
wholly  from  that  source. 

First  we  have  an  account  of  a  re-consecra- 
tion of  Bethel,  in  which  there  is  a  reference  to  that 
version  of  Jacob's  journey  to  Paddan-aram  which 
represented  him  as  fleeing  from  the  anger  of 
Esau.  There  is  no  indication  of  his  previous 
dwelling-place,  but  he  is  told  to  "  go  up  to  Bethel 
and  dwell  there,"  and  to  "  make  there  an  altar  to 
God."  This  is  one  of  the  tales  which  symbolized 
the  possession  of  that  sacred  place,  the  discarding 
of  idolatry  and  its  emblems,  which  included  rings 
worn  as  amulets  in  the  ears,  and  devotion  to  the 

232 


BETHEL  AND   AFTER  233 

worship  of  "El"  on  the  ancient  height  of  Luz. 
It  indicates  the  previous  existence  among  the 
people  of  polytheism,  whose  tokens,  brought  from 
Syria,  by  stealth,  were  to  be  buried  by  the  terebinth 
of  Shechem.  This  passage  seems  to  be  fragmen- 
tary, and  the  tradition  of  the  death  of  Rebekah's 
nurse  at  a  place  where  there  was  a  tree  known  as 
"the  oak  of  weeping"  is  brought  in  with  a  strange 
irrelevancy.  There  is  no  intimation  elsewhere 
that  the  nurse  of  Jacob's  mother  had  attended 
him  in  his  varied  wanderings,  and  one  would 
have  supposed  her  dead  long  before  this  time. 

The  passage  which  immediately  follows  this 
contains  yet  another  account  of  the  consecration 
of  Bethel,  and  of  the  giving  of  that  name  to  the 
place,  though  it  has  been  already  attributed  once 
to  Abraham,  and  twice  to  Jacob.  The  incident  is 
said  to  have  occurred  when  Jacob  "  came  from 
Paddan-aram,"  and  then  and  there  also  his  name 
was  changed  to  Israel,  though  we  have  had  quite 
another  account  of  that  in  the  occurrence  by  the 
ford  of  Jabbok.  The  form  of  consecration  by  set- 
ting up  a  pillar  and  pouring  out  a  libation  and 
anointing  with  oil  is  generally  characteristic  of 
the  Elohist,  where  the  Jehovist  and  the  compiler 
writing  in  his  own  person  speak  of  the  building 
of  an  altar  and  making  sacrifices. 


234  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

An  ethnic  fragment  is  brought  in  here  relating 
to  the  birth  of  Benjamin,  on  a  journey  from  the 
North  to  the  South.  The  derivation  of  the  name 
of  that  tribe  has  been  variously  explained,  and 
while  "yamin"  meant  "right,"  the  warriors  of  the 
tribe  were  distinguished  for  a  skilful  use  of  the 
left  hand.  They  were  called  Beni-yamin,  sons  of 
the  right  or  skilled  hand,  apparently  because  they 
were  ambidextrous,  or  skilled  with  both  hands, 
—  right-handed  as  it  were,  on  both  sides.  Hence 
the  etymological  paradox  of  their  being  called 
sons  of  the  right  hand  because  they  used  their 
weapons  with  the  left  hand,  which  made  them 
specially  effective  as  slingers  and  javelin-throw- 
ers. The  interpretation  of  "right"  as  favorable 
or  fortunate,  with  reference  to  omens,  seems  to  be 
without  support  in  Hebrew  ideas.  The  Samaritans 
derived  the  name  from  "  yamim,"  "  days,"  indi- 
cating the  son  of  old  age,  but  the  chronology  of 
these  narratives  is  greatly  mixed  and  not  signifi- 
cant of  much. 

There  were  two  traditions  of  Rachel's  tomb,  one 
of  which  placed  it  at  Bethlehem  and  the  other 
north  of  Jerusalem  (i  Sam.  x.  2).  It  is  easy  to 
imagine,  but  impossible  to  prove,  that  the  com- 
piler interpolated  here  the  irrelevant  statement 
of   Reuben's  offence,  deriving  it  from  the   poem 


BETHEL   AND   AFTER  235 

which  we  shall  find  later  on,  commonly  known 
as  Jacob's   "blessing"  of  his  sons. 

The  bit  of  genealogy  at  the  end  of  the  chapter 
is  noteworthy  for  including  Benjamin  among  the 
twelve  sons  of  Jacob  "born  to  him  in  Paddan- 
aram,"  for  making  Hebron  the  dwelling-place  of 
Isaac,  and  for  representing  Esau  and  Jacob  as 
still  in  personal  relations  and  joining  in  the  burial 
of  their  father.  These  are  unmistakable  charac- 
teristics of  the  Elohist  and  quite  inconsistent  with 
the  Jehovist  narratives,  which  placed  Isaac  at 
Beersheba,  set  enmity  between  Esau  and  Jacob, 
and  long  ago  sent  the  former  to  the  wilderness 
of  Mount  Seir  as  a  hunter  and  warrior.  These 
differences  are  of  supreme  interest  as  proof  of 
the  diversity  of  material  and  of  the  purely  ethni- 
cal significance  of  these  so-called  records. 

The  confused  chronology  is  important  only  in 
the  same  view.  For  instance,  Isaac  was  sixty 
years  old  when  Jacob  was  born,  and  he  dies  at 
one  hundred  and  eighty,  making  the  son  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  ;  but  Jacob  was  forty  when  he 
went  to  Paddan-aram,  and  he  remained  there 
twenty  years.  This  would  give  an  interval  of 
sixty  years  between  his  return  and  his  father's 
death.  But  Joseph  was  born  in  Paddan-aram  and 
must  have  been  living  these  sixty  years,  while  we 


236  THE   MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

are  yet  to  sec  him  sent  to  Egypt  at  the  age  of 
seventeen  and  becoming  Pharaoh's  prime  minister 
at  thirty. 

[XXXV] 

And  God  said  unto  Jacob,  Arise,  go  up  to  Beth- el, 
and  dwell  there ;  and  make  there  an  altar  unto 
God,  who  appeared  unto  thee  when  thou  fleddest 
from  the  face  of  Esau  thy  brother. 

Then  Jacob  said  unto  his  household,  and  to  all 
that  were  with  him,  Put  away  the  strange  gods  that 
are  among  you,  and  purify  yourselves,  and  change 
your  garments ;  and  let  us  arise,  and  go  up  to 
Beth-el ;  and  I  will  make  there  an  altar  unto  God, 
who  answered  me  in  the  clay  of  my  distress,  and 
was  with  me  in  the  way  which  I  went.  And  they 
gave  unto  Jacob  all  the  strange  gods  which  were  in 
their  hand,  and  the  rings  which  were  in  their  ears ; 
and  Jacob  hid  them  under  the  terebinth  which  was 
by  Shechem. 

And  they  journeyed  ;  and  terror  of  God  was  upon 
the  cities  that  were  round  about  them,  and  they  did 
not  pursue  after  the  sons  of  Jacob.  So  Jacob  came 
to  Luz,  which  is  in  the  land  of  Canaan  (the  same  is 
Beth-el),  he  and  all  the  people  that  were  with  him. 
And  he  built  there  an  altar,  and  called  the  place 
El-beth-el,  because  there  God  was  revealed  unto 
him  when  he  fled  from  the  face  of  his  brother. 

And  Deborah  Rebekah's  nurse  died,  and  she  was 
buried  below  Beth-el  under  the  oak ;  and  the  name 
of  it  was  called  Allon-bacuth  {the  oak  of  weeping). 


BETHEL  AND   AFTER  237 

[And  God  appeared  unto  Jacob  again,  when  he 
came  from  Paddan-aram,  and  blessed  him.  And 
God  said  unto  him,  Thy  name  is  Jacob ;  thy  name 
shall  not  be  called  any  more  Jacob,  but  Israel  shall 
be  thy  name  :  and  he  called  his  name  Israel.  And 
God  said  unto  him,  I  am  God  Almighty  {El  Shad- 
dai)  ;  be  fruitful  and  multiply  ;  a  nation  and  a  union 
of  nations  shall  be  of  thee,  and  kings  shall  come 
out  of  thy  loins ;  and  the  land  which  I  gave  unto 
Abraham  and  Isaac,  to  thee  I  will  give  it,  and  to 
thy  race  after  thee  will  I  give  the  land.  And  God 
went  up  from  him  in  the  place  where  he  spake  with 
him.  And  Jacob  set  up  a  pillar  in  the  place  where 
he  spake  with  him,  a  pillar  of  stone  ;  and  he  poured 
out  a  drink  offering  thereon,  and  poured  oil  thereon. 
And  Jacob  called  the  name  of  the  place  where  God 
spake  with  him,  Beth-el.] 

And  they  journeyed  from  Beth-el ;  and  there  was 
still  some  way  to  come  to  Ephrath ;  and  Rachel 
travailed,  and  she  had  hard  labour.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  when  she  was  in  hard  labour,  that  the  mid- 
wife said  unto  her,  Fear  not ;  for  now  thou  shalt 
have  another  son.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  her  soul 
was  in  departing  (for  she  died),  that  she  called  his 
name  Ben-oni  ;  but  his  father  called  him  Benjamin. 
And  Rachel  died,  and  was  buried  in  the  way  to 
Ephrath  (the  same  is  Beth-lehem).  And  Jacob  set 
up  a  pillar  upon  her  grave  ;  the  same  is  the  Pillar 
of  Rachel's  grave  unto  this  day.  And  Israel  jour- 
neyed, and   spread  his  tent  beyond  the  tower  of 


238  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Eder.  [And  it  came  to  pass,  while  Israel  dwelt  in 
that  land,  that  Reuben  went  and  lay  with  Bilhah  his 
father's  concubine  ;  and  Israel  heard  of  it.] 

[  Now  the  sons  of  Jacob  were  twelve  :  the  sons  of 
Leah;  Reuben,  Jacob's  firstborn,  and  Simeon,  and 
Levi,  and  Judah,  and  Issachar,  and  Zebulun  :  the 
sons  of  Rachel ;  Joseph  and  Benjamin :  and  the 
sons  of  Bilhah,  Rachel's  handmaid;  Dan  and  Naph- 
tali :  and  the  sons  of  Zilpah,  Leah's  handmaid;  Gad 
and  Asher  :  these  are  the  sons  of  Jacob,  which  were 
born  to  him  in  Paddan-aram.  And  Jacob  came 
unto  Isaac  his  father  to  Mamre,  to  Kiriath-arba 
(the  same  is  Hebron),  where  Abraham  and  Isaac 
sojourned.  And  the  days  of  Isaac  were  an  hundred 
and  fourscore  years.  And  Isaac  gave  up  the  ghost, 
and  died,  and  was  gathered  unto  his  people,  old 
and  full  of  days ;  and  Esau  and  Jacob  his  sons 
buried  him.] 


XXX 

EDOMITE    ETHNOGRAPHY 

Immediately  after  giving  us  a  view  of  Esau 
joining  with  his  brother  Jacob  in  the  burial  of 
their  father  at  Hebron,  the  compiler  introduces  an 
ethnographical  account  of  Edom,  obviously  made 
up  of  diverse  fragments.  The  repetitions  and 
inconsistencies  indicate  that  additions  and  correc- 
tions had  been  crudely  made.  The  general  pur- 
pose was  to  indicate  that  the  Edomites,  whose 
domain  was  substantially  that  of  Arabia  Petraea, 
were  of  mixed  blood  and  widely  alienated  from 
the  pure  strain  of  the  descendants  of  Abraham, 
which  was  preserved  only  in  Israel.  They  were 
mingled  not  only  with  the  Canaanites  and  Ishmael- 
ites,  but  with  the  Horites,  who  were  the  indige- 
nous people  of  the  Mount  Seir  region. 

The  first  paragraph,  as  the  text  is  printed  below, 
is  clearly  from  the  Elohist  document,  and  only 
presents  the  three  main  branches  of  the  Edomite 
stock  as  offspring  of  Esau's  wives,  two  of  whom 
were  from  separate  Canaanite  tribes  and  the  other 
was  a   daughter  of  Ishmael.     This  writer   repre- 

239 


24O  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

sents  the  separation  of  Esau  and  Jacob  as  occur- 
ring after  the  birth  of  the  former's  five  sons,  and 
an  undefined  number  of  daughters,  and  as  being 
a  peaceable  arrangement  due  to  the  increase  of 
their  possessions.  The  incongruity  of  this  picture 
with  the  Jehovist's  account  of  the  enmity  of  the 
two  brothers,  and  especially  with  the  story  of  their 
encounter  when  Jacob  was  returning  from  Paddan- 
aram  and  Esau  came  with  an  army  from  Mount 
Seir,  where  he  had  been  established  long  before, 
is  sufficiently  manifest. 

The  second  paragraph,  in  the  division  below,  is 
quite  independent  of  this,  but  corresponds  in  the 
names  of  the  wives  and  sons  of  Esau.  It  carries 
the  genealogy  just  far  enough  to  account  for  the 
traditional  twelve  tribes  of  Edom,  and  the  roving 
and  predatory  Amalekites,  who  are  set  aside  as  the 
offspring  of  a  concubine. 

In  the  next  paragraph  we  have  a  repetition  of  the 
names  as  of  the  chiefs  of  tribes,  but  this  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  personification  of  the  aborigines  of  the 
Mount  Seir  wilderness  as  the  sons  of  Seir  the 
Horite.  But  the  names  are  in  part  the  same  as 
those  which  figure  among  the  descendants  of  Esau, 
and  the  relationships  are  confused.  Anah,  for 
instance,  who  has  been  called  a  son  of  Zibeon,  the 
Hivite,  is  made  both  the  brother  and  the  son  of 


EDOMITE   ETHNOGRAPHY  24 1 

Zibeon,  who  is  a  Horite.  In  fact,  the  names  in 
both  cases  are  mostly  those  of  places,  though 
some  of  them  have  a  meaning  denoting  animals. 
Zibeon  means  a  hyena,  and  Anah  a  wild  ass,  for 
instance. 

These  writings  are  not  far  from  contempo- 
raneous with  the  Book  of  Job,  and  it  is  interest- 
ing to  note  the  correspondence  between  Eliphaz 
as  the  father  of  Teman  and  Eliphaz  the  Teman- 
ite,  and  to  find  Uz  among  the  descendants  of 
Seir.  Uz  also  appears  in  the  ethnography  of 
Genesis  x.  among  the  descendants  of  Shem. 

The  account  of  the  "  kings  that  reigned  in 
the  land  of  Edom  before  there  reigned  any 
king  over  the  children  of  Israel "  is  curious  as 
naively  revealing  the  fact  that  the  author  was 
writing  in  the  time  of  the  kings  in  Israel,  if 
indeed  he  ever  had  any  idea  of  concealing  that 
fact.  Some  have  thought  to  identify  Jobab  in 
this  line  of  kings  with  Job,  but  that  is  fanciful. 
There  is  a  brief  repetition  or  variation  of  a  list  of 
Edomite  chiefs,  in  which  Timna  and  Oholibamah 
figure,  though  these  have  previously  appeared  as 
a  concubine  and  a  wife  respectively  of  Esau. 
These  were  really  the  names  of  places  like  Uz 
and  Teman. 

The  sentences  in    brackets    at   the   end    are   a 

R 


242  THE    MYTHS    OF   ISRAEL 

broken  fragment  used  by  the  compiler  to  form 
a  rude  connecting  link  between  two  utterly  un- 
related passages  in  his  work.  The  last  sentence 
appears  to  have  been  introductory  to  a  genealogy 
of  Jacob,  which  does  not  follow. 

[XXXVI] 

Now  these  are  the  generations  of  Esau  (the  same 
is  Edom).  Esau  took  his  wives  of  the  daughters  of 
Canaan  ;  Adah  the  daughter  of  Elon  the  Hittite,  and 
Oholibamah  the  daughter  of  Anah,  the  daughter  of 
Zibeon  the  Hivite ;  and  Basemath  Ishmael's  daugh- 
ter, sister  of  Nebaioth.  And  Adah  bare  to  Esau 
Eliphaz  ;  and  Basemath  bare  Reuel ;  and  Oholiba- 
mah bare  Jeush,  and  Jalam,  and  Korah  :  these  are 
the  sons  of  Esau,  which  were  born  unto  him  in  the 
land  of  Canaan.  And  Esau  took  his  wives,  and  his 
sons,  and  his  daughters,  and  all  the  souls  of  his 
house,  and  his  cattle,  and  all  his  beasts,  and  all 
his  possessions,  which  he  had  gathered  in  the  land 
of  Canaan  ;  and  went  into  a  land  away  from  his 
brother  Jacob.  For  their  substance  was  too  great 
for  them  to  dwell  together ;  and  the  land  of  their 
sojournings  could  not  bear  them  because  of  their 
cattle.  And  Esau  dwelt  in  mount  Seir.  Esau  is 
Edom. 

And  these  are  the  generations  of  Esau  the  father 
of  the  Edomites  in  mount  Seir :  these  are  the  names 


EDOMITE   ETHNOGRAPHY  243 

of  Esau's  sons ;  Eliphaz  the  son  of  Adah  the  wife  of 
Esau,  Reuel  the  son  of  Basemath  the  wife  of  Esau. 
And  the  sons  of  Eliphaz  were  Teman,  Omar,  Zepho, 
and  Gatam,  and  Kenaz.  And  Tamna  was  concu- 
bine to  Eliphaz  Esau's  son ;  and  she  bare  to  Eliphaz 
Amalek  :  these  are  the  sons  of  Adah  Esau's  wife. 
And  these  are  the  sons  of  Reuel ;  Nahath,  and  Zerah, 
Shammah,  and  Mizzah  :  these  were  the  sons  of  Base- 
math  Esau's  wife.  And  these  were  the  sons  of  Oho- 
libamah the  daughter  of  Anah,  the  daughter  of  Zib- 
eon,  Esau's  wife ;  and  she  bare  to  Esau  Jeush,  and 
Jalam,  and  Korah. 

These  are  the  chiefs  of  the  sons  of  Esau  :  the 
sons  of  Eliphaz  the  firstborn  of  Esau  ;  chief  Teman, 
chief  Omar,  chief  Zepho,  chief  Kenaz,  chief  Korah, 
chief  Gatam,  chief  Amalek  :  these  are  the  chiefs 
that  came  of  Eliphaz  in  the  land  of  Edom ;  these 
are  the  sons  of  Adah.  And  these  are  the  sons  of 
Reuel  Esau's  son ;  chief  Nahath,  chief  Zerah,  chief 
Shammah,  chief  Mizzah  :  these  are  the  chiefs  that 
came  of  Reuel  in  the  land  of  Edom  ;  these  are  the 
sons  of  Basemath  Esau's  wife.  And  these  are  the 
sons  of  Oholibamah  Esau's  wife  ;  chief  Jeush,  chief 
Jalam,  chief  Korah  :  these  are  the  chiefs  that  came 
of  Oholibamah  the  daughter  of  Anah,  Esau's  wife. 
These  are  the  sons  of  Esau,  and  these  are  their 
chiefs.     The  same  is  Edom. 

These  are  the  sons  of  Seir  the  Horite,  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  land  ;  Lotan  and  Shobal  and  Zibeon 
and  Anah,  and  Dishon  and  Ezer  and  Dishan  :  these 


244 


THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

are  the  chiefs  that  came  of  the  Horites,  the  children 
of  Seir  in  the  land  of  Edom.  And  the  children  of 
Lotan  were  Hori  and  Hemam ;  and  Lotan's  sister 
was  Timna.  And  these  are  the  children  of  Shobal ; 
Alvan  and  Manahath  and  Ebal,  Shepho  and  Onam. 
And  these  are  the  children  of  Zibeon  ;  Aiah  and 
Anah  :  [this  is  Anah  who  found  the  hot  springs  in 
the  wilderness,  as  he  fed  the  asses  of  Zibeon  his 
father].  And  these  are  the  children  of  Anah; 
Dishon  and  Oholibamah  the  daughter  of  Anah. 
And  these  are  the  children  of  Dishon ;  Hemdan 
and  Eshban  and  Ithran  and  Cheran.  These  are 
the  children  of  Ezer ;  Bilhan  and  Zaavan  and  Akan. 
These  are  the  children  of  Dishan  ;  Uz  and  Aran. 
These  are  the  chiefs  that  came  of  the  Horites ; 
chief  Lotan,  chief  Shobal,  chief  Zibeon,  chief  Anah, 
chief  Dishon,  chief  Ezer,  chief  Dishan  :  these  are 
the  chiefs  that  came  of  the  Horites,  according  to 
their  chiefs  in  the  land  of  Seir. 

And  these  are  the  kings  that  reigned  in  the  land 
of  Edom,  before  there  reigned  any  king  over  the 
children  of  Israel.  And  Bela  the  son  of  Beor 
reigned  in  Edom  ;  and  the  name  of  his  city  was 
Dinhabah.  And  Bela  died,  and  Jobab  the  son  of 
Zerah  of  Bozrah  reigned  in  his  stead.  And  Jobab 
died,  and  Husham  of  the  land  of  the  Temanites 
reigned  in  his  stead.  And  Husham  died,  and 
Hadad  the  son  of  Bedad,  who  smote  Midian  in 
the  field  of  Moab,  reigned  in  his  stead  ;  and  the 
name  of  his  city  was  Avith.  And  Hadad  died,  and 
Samlah  of  Masrekah  reigned   in    his   stead.     And 


EDOMITE   ETHNOGRAPHY  245 

Samlah  died,  and  Shaul  of  Rehoboth  by  the  River 
reigned  in  his  stead.  And  Shaul  died,  and  Baal- 
hanan  the  son  of  Achbor  reigned  in  his  stead.  And 
Baal-hanan  the  son  of  Achbor  died,  and  Hadar 
reigned  in  his  stead ;  and  the  name  of  his  city 
was  Pau ;  and  his  wife's  name  was  Mehetabel,  the 
daughter  of  Matred,  the  daughter  of  Me-zahab. 

And  these  are  the  names  of  the  chiefs  that  came 
of  Esau,  according  to  their  families,  after  their 
places,  by  their  names ;  chief  Timnah,  chief  Alvah, 
chief  Jetheth ;  chief  Oholibamah,  chief  Elah,  chief 
Pinon ;  chief  Kenaz,  chief  Teman,  chief  Mibzar ; 
chief  Magdiel,  chief  Irani :  these  be  the  chiefs  of 
Edom,  according  to  their  habitations  in  the  land 
of  their  possession. 

[This  is  Esau  the  father  of  the  Edomites,  and 
Jacob  dwelt  in  the  land  of  his  father's  sojournings, 
in  the  land  of  Canaan.  These  are  the  generations  of 
Jacob.] 


XXXI 

JOSEPH    AND    HIS  BRETHREN 

If  the  original  author  of  the  story  of  Joseph 
and  his  brethren  was  familiar  with  the  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob  legends,  he  took  no  pains  to 
be  consistent  with  them.  As  it  now  stands,  it 
has  no  congruity  with  what  precedes  in  the 
"record,"  and  it  furnishes  many  indications  of 
the  manner  in  which  that  record  was  composed. 

It  assumes,  in  the  application  of  the  dream  of 
the  sun  and  moon  and  eleven  stars,  that  Joseph's 
mother  was  still  living.  It  makes  no  reference 
to  Leah,  but  speaks  of  Bilhah  and  Zilpah  as  the 
father's  "wives"  and  the  mothers  of  Joseph's 
brethren.  One  reason  given  for  the  hatred  of 
his  brethren  was  jealousy  on  account  of  the  fath- 
er's special  love  of  the  "  son  of  his  old  age,"  and 
yet,  in  the  account  of  the  birth  of  the  children 
in  Paddan-aram,  it  appeared  that  there  could  not 
be  a  difference  of  more  than  six  or  seven  years 
between  the  oldest  and  the  youngest.  Joseph  is 
said  to  be  seventeen  years  old,  but  according  to 
the  chronology  of   the   genealogical    narrator   he 

246 


JOSEPH   AND    HIS   BRETHREN  247 

must  have  been  sixty  when  Isaac  died.  If  we 
follow  this  story  and  take  seventeen  as  his  age 
when  he  was  sent  into  Egypt,  thirty  when  Pha- 
raoh put  him  in  charge  of  great  affairs  there, 
and  under  forty,  as  it  must  have  been,  when 
Jacob  told  Pharaoh  that  the  sum  of  his  own 
"few  and  evil  days"  was  a  hundred  and  thirty 
years,  then  must  Jacob  have  been  at  least  ninety 
years  old  when  Joseph  was  born,  six  years  before 
he  left  Paddan-aram,  and  something  like  seventy- 
five  when  he  went  there.  Such  inconsistencies 
dispel  all  ideas  of  personal  history  in  these  ac- 
counts, but  are  unimportant  when  they  are  re- 
garded in  their  true  light  as  ethnic  myths. 

There  are  distinct  evidences  of  the  blending 
of  two  different  tales  in  the  account  of  Joseph's 
going  to  Egypt.  The  two  explanations  of  the 
motives  of  his  brothers'  hatred,  —  the  father's  fa- 
voritism, and  the  self-exaltation  of  the  dreams,  — 
were  from  different  sources.  Among  the  unreali- 
ties of  the  narrative  may  be  mentioned  the  sup- 
position that  dwellers  in  the  vale  of  Hebron 
would  be  feeding  their  flocks  in  Shechem,  espe- 
cially after  the  episode  of  slaughter  there,  —  of 
which  this  writer  perhaps  knew  nothing,  —  and 
wandering  thence  to  Dothan,  an  unidentified  place 
on  the  caravan  route  from   Damascus  to   Egypt, 


248  THE  MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

and  that  a  lad  of  seventeen  would  be  sent  over 
that  range  of  hill  country  occupied  by  Canaanite 
tribes  to  inquire  after  their  welfare. 

It  is  especially  in  the  account  of  the  betrayal  of 
the  younger  brother,  his  rescue  from  death,  and 
the  abduction  to  Egypt,  that  indications  of  the 
blending  of  two  stories  are  clear.  According  to 
one,  Reuben  rescues  the  lad  by  the  suggestion  that 
he  be  put  into  one  of  the  empty  water  cisterns 
which  were  placed  below  the  level  of  the  ground 
in  those  grazing  regions.  This  was  consented  to, 
perhaps,  with  the  idea  that  he  would  perish  there, 
for  the  peculiar  horror  of  death  by  shedding  the 
blood  did  not  attach  to  perishing  by  other  means. 
But  passing  Midianites  drew  the  boy  out,  carried 
him  to  Egypt,  and  sold  him  into  slavery. 

According  to  the  other  story  he  was  saved  by 
Judah's  suggestion,  that  instead  of  killing  him  they 
sell  him  to  a  caravan  of  Ishmaelites  which  hap- 
pened to  pass  that  way.  Details  of  the  stories 
were  omitted  to  make  them  fit  together,  and  at  the 
end  of  this  preliminary  chapter  we  are  told  that  the 
"Midianites  sold  him  into  Egypt  unto  Potiphar," 
while  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  in  which 
the  narrative  is  resumed,  "  Potiphar  bought  him 
of  the  hand  of  the  Ishmaelites."  Casual  signs  of 
the  two  stories  also  appear  further  on.     For  in- 


JOSEPH   AND   HIS   BRETHREN  249 

stance,  Joseph  told  Pharaoh's  chief  butler  in  the 
prison  that  he  was  "  stolen  away  out  of  the  land  of 
the  Hebrews"  (by  the  Midianites  ?),  and  when  he 
finally  revealed  himself  to  his  brothers,  he  told 
them  not  to  be  grieved  "  that  ye  sold  me  hither  " 
(to  the  Ishmaelites  ?). 

Another  of  the  evidences  of  mythical  origin 
may  be  noted  in  this  reference  to  caravans  of 
Ishmaelites  and  Midianites  passing  through  the 
country  to  trade  with  Egypt.  Jacob's  family  thus 
far  appears  to  consist  of  a  dozen  children,  and 
when  they  finally  went  down  to  Goshen,  some 
twenty  years  later,  "  all  the  souls  of  the  house  of 
Jacob  "  were  "  three  score  and  ten."  But  the  Ish- 
maelites had  been  represented  as  the  descendants 
of  his  father's  half  brother,  and  the  Midianites  as 
the  progeny  of  another  and  much  younger  half 
brother.  For  such  near  relatives,  they  had  grown 
numerous  and  unfriendly  at  an  amazing  rate,  but 
in  myths  and  fables,  however  significant  of  truths 
in  their  own  way,  historical  probability  is  not  to 
be  looked  for.  The  great  fact  embodied  in  this 
story  is  the  vast  superiority  in  the  mind  of  its 
original  author  of  the  character  and  destiny  of  the 
Josephite  tribes  over  the  rest  of  Israel.  Its  further 
use  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  accounting  for  the 
greater,  fact  that    the   Israelites  did   at  a  remote 


250  THE   MYTHS    OF    ISRAEL 

time  wander  into  Egypt  and  fall  into   a  state  of 
bondage. 

In  the  text  below  an  attempt  is  made  to  separate 
the  elements  which  belong  to  the  two  different 
versions  of  the  story  by  inclosing  in  brackets  the 
statements  drawn  from  the  one  that  represents  the 
envy  of  the  brothers  as  due  to  the  father's  favorit- 
ism, and  Judah  as  accomplishing  Joseph's  rescue 
by  the  device  of  selling  him  to  the  Ishmaelites. 
The  parts  derived  from  the  other  version  appear 
by  omitting  these  bracketed  statements,  and  they 
attribute  the  hatred  for  Joseph  to  his  dreams  of 
greatness,  and  the  rescue  to  Reuben's  interposi- 
tion and  the  casting  of  the  youth  into  the  "pit," 
from  which  he  was  lifted  out  and  carried  away  by 
Midianites.  The  division  is  that  of  Lenormant, 
who  credited  the  story  in  which  Reuben  and  the 
Midianites  figure  to  the  Elohist,  and  that  in  which 
Judah  and  the  Ishmaelites  appear  to  the  Jehovist. 
There  is  little  but  conjecture  to  sustain  that  view, 
and  if  it  is  well  founded,  it  is  pretty  certain  that 
the  material  was  not  original  with  those  writers, 
though  the  opening  statement  of  the  chapter, 
which  sets  out  to  give  the  "generations"  of  Jacob, 
and  is  interrupted  with  the  Joseph  story,  is  dis- 
tinctly of  the  Elohist.  The  unquestionable  thing 
is  that  the  compiler  of  Genesis  imperfectly  blended 


JOSEPH   AND   HIS   BRETHREN  25 1 

into  one  two  stories  which  were  not  consistent  in 
their  details.  It  will  be  interesting  to  note  for 
future  reference  that  in  the  elements  from  one 
version  of  the  story  the  father  of  Joseph  is  called 
Jacob,  while  in  those  from  the  other  he  is  called 
Israel. 

[XXXVII] 

And  Jacob  dwelt  in  the  land  of  his  father's  sojourn- 
ings,  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  These  are  the  genera- 
tions of  Jacob. 

Joseph,  being  seventeen  years  old,  was  feeding 
the  flock  with  his  brethren ;  [and  he  was  a  lad  with 
the  sons  of  Bilhah,  and  with  the  sons  of  Zilpah,  his 
father's  wives  :]  and  Joseph  brought  the  evil  report 
of  them  unto  their  father.  [Now  Israel  loved  Joseph 
more  than  all  his  children,  because  he  was  the  son 
of  his  old  age  ;  and  lie  made  him  a  coat  of  many 
colours.  And  his  brethren  saw  that  their  father 
loved  him  more  than  all  his  brethren ;  and  they 
hated  him,   and   could   not  speak   peaceably  unto 

him.] 

And  Joseph  dreamed  a  dream,  and  he  told  it  to 
his  brethren  ;  and  they  hated  him  yet  the  more. 
And  he  said  unto  them,  Hear,  I  pray  you,  this 
dream  which  I  have  dreamed  :  for,  behold,  we  were 
binding  sheaves  in  the  field,  and,  lo,  my  sheaf  arose, 
and  also  stood  upright ;  and,  behold,  your  sheaves 
came  round  about,  and  made  obeisance  to  my  sheaf. 
And  his  brethren  said  unto  him,  Shalt  thou  indeed 


252  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

reign  over  us?  or  shalt  thou  indeed  have  dominion 
over  us  ?  And  they  hated  him  yet  the  more  for  his 
dreams,  and  for  his  words.  And  he  dreamed  yet 
another  dream,  and  told  it  to  his  brethren,  and  said, 
Behold,  I  have  dreamed  yet  a  dream  ;  and,  behold, 
the  sun  and  the  moon  and  eleven  stars  made  obei- 
sance to  me.  And  he  told  it  to  his  father,  and  to 
his  brethren  ;  and  his  father  rebuked  him,  and  said 
unto  him,  What  is  this  dream  that  thou  hast  dreamed? 
Shall  I  and  thy  mother  and  thy  brethren  indeed 
come  to  bow  down  ourselves  to  thee  to  the  earth? 
And  his  brethren  envied  him;  but  his  father  kept 
the  saying  in  his  mind. 

[And  his  brethren  went  to  feed  their  father's 
flock  in  Shechem.  And  Israel  said  unto  Joseph, 
Do  not  thy  brethren  feed  the  flock  in  Shechem? 
come,  and  I  will  send  thee  unto  them.  And  he  said 
to  him,  Here  am  I.  And  he  said  to  him,  Go  now, 
see  whether  it  be  well  with  thy  brethren,  and  well 
with  the  flock  ;  and  bring  me  word  again.  So  he 
sent  him  out  of  the  vale  of  Hebron,  and  he  came  to 
Shechem.  And  a  certain  man  found  him,  and,  be- 
hold, he  was  wandering  in  the  field  :  and  the  man 
asked  him,  saying,  What  seekest  thou?  And  he 
said,  I  seek  my  brethren  ;  tell  me,  I  pray  thee,  where 
they  are  feeding  the  flock.  And  the  man  said,  They 
are  departed  hence  ;  for  I  heard  them  say,  Let  us 
go  to  Dothan.  And  Joseph  went  after  his  brethren, 
and  found  them  in  Dothan.] 

And  they  saw  him  afar  off,  and  before  he  came 
near  unto  them,  they  conspired  against  him  to  slay 


JOSEPH   AND    HIS   BRETHREN  253 

him.  And  they  said  one  to  another,  Behold,  this 
dreamer  cometh.  Come  now  therefore,  and  let  us 
day  him,  and  cast  him  into  one  of  the  pits,  and  we 
will  say,  An  evil  beast  hath  devoured  him ;  and  we 
shall  see  what  will  become  of  his  dreams.  And 
Reuben  heard  it,  and  delivered  him  out  of  their 
hand ;  and  said,  Let  us  not  take  his  life.  And 
Reuben  said  unto  them,  Shed  no  blood  ;  cast  him 
into  this  pit  that  is  in  the  wilderness,  but  lay  no 
hand  upon  him  :  that  he  might  deliver  him  out  of 
their  hand,  to  restore  him  to  his  father. 

[And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Joseph  was  come 
unto  his  brethren,  that  they  stript  Joseph  of  his 
coat,  the  coat  of  many  colours  that  was  on  him.] 

And  they  took  him,  and  cast  him  into  the  pit ; 
and  the  pit  was  empty,  there  was  no  water  in  it. 

[And  they  sat  down  to  eat  bread  ;  and  they  lifted 
up  their  eyes  and  looked,  and,  behold,  a  travelling 
company  of  Ishmaelites  came  from  Gilead,  with 
their  camels  bearing  spicery  and  balm  and  myrrh, 
going  to  carry  it  down  to  Egypt.  And  Judah  said 
unto  his  brethren,  What  profit  is  it  if  we  slay  our 
brother  and  conceal  his  blood  ?  Come,  and  let  us 
sell  him  to  the  Ishmaelites,  and  let  not  our  hand  be 
upon  him  ;  for  he  is  our  brother,  our  flesh.  And 
his  brethren  hearkened  unto  him.] 

And  there  passed  by  Midianites,  merchantmen ; 
and  they  drew  and  lifted  up  Joseph  out  of  the  pit, 
[and  sold  Joseph  to  the  Ishmaelites  for  twenty 
pieces  of  silver].  And  they  brought  Joseph  into 
Egypt.     And  Reuben  returned  unto  the  pit ;  and, 


254  TllE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

behold,  Joseph  was  not  in  the  pit ;  and  he  rent 
his  clothes.  And  he  returned  unto  his  brethren, 
and  said,  The  child  is  not ;  and  I,  whither  shall  I 
go? 

[And  they  took  Joseph's  coat,  and  killed  a  he- 
goat,  and  dipped  the  coat  in  the  blood ;  and 
they  sent  the  coat  of  many  colours,  and  they 
brought  it  to  their  father ;  and  said,  This  have  we 
found  ;  know  now  whether  it  be  thy  son's  coat  or 
not.  And  he  knew  it,  and  said,  It  is  my  son's  coat ; 
an  evil  beast  hath  devoured  him ;  Joseph  is  without 
doubt  torn  in  pieces.] 

And  Jacob  rent  his  garments,  and  put  sackcloth 
upon  his  loins,  and  mourned  for  his  son  many  days. 
And  all  his  sons  and  all  his  daughters  rose  up  to 
comfort  him  ;  but  he  refused  to  be  comforted ;  and 
he  said,  For  I  will  go  down  to  Sheol  to  my  son 
mourning.  And  his  father  wept  for  him.  And  the 
Midianites  sold  him  into  Egypt  unto  Potiphar,  an 
officer  of  Pharaoh's,  the  captain  of  the  guard. 


XXXII 

JUDAH    AND    HIS    FAMILY 

Perhaps  it  is  not  strange  that  the  Judean  com- 
piler of  the  Book  of  Genesis  should  have  retained 
the  story  of  the  exaltation  of  Joseph  at  the  ex- 
pense of  his  brethren.  When  he  wrote,  the  proud 
Kingdom  of  Ephraim  had  been  humiliated  and 
destroyed,  and  its  memories  had  become  a  com- 
mon heritage  of  the  race.  Hope  of  a  reunion  of 
the  tribes  and  the  establishment  of  a  glorious 
and  enduring  Kingdom  of  all  Israel  was  then 
cherished.  He  could  afford  to  be  magnanimous, 
and  besides,  the  story  was  a  fascinating  one,  and 
it  was  an  essential  part  of  that  great  epic  of  the 
bondage  and  deliverance  of  the  people,  which 
formed  the  basis  of  their  history,  their  law,  and 
their  religion.  The  compiler  could  hardly  dis- 
pense with  it,  and  he  was  not  capable  of  re- 
placing it.  Fortunately  he  retained  it  very  much 
as  he  found  it  in  the  collection  of  Ephraimite 
productions. 

But  it  does  seem  strange  that  between  the 
preliminary  story    of   Joseph's    dreams    of   great- 

255 


256  THE   MYTHS   OK   ISRAEL 

ness  and  the  jealousy  and  treachery  of  his  breth- 
ren, and  that  of  the  realization  of  the  dreams  in 
power  and  glory  in  Egypt,  with  the  humiliation 
and  dependence  of  the  rest  of  the  family,  he 
should  have  introduced  that  picture  of  the  deg- 
radation of  Judah,  containing  a  slightly  veiled 
satire  upon  the  founder  of  the  Judean  dynasty, 
which  stands  apart  from  all  connection  with  the 
context  as  Genesis  xxxviii.  Doubtless  he  did 
not  appreciate  the  moral  turpitude  attributed  to 
Judah,  and  the  ignominy  attached  to  his  off- 
spring; but  he  could  hardly  have  missed  the  gen- 
eral meaning  and  purpose  of  the  story,  which 
must  have  originated  at  a  time  of  harsh  feeling 
between  the  two  kingdoms. 

We  have  seen  in  the  equally  independent 
epopee  of  Simeon  and  Levi  avenging  their  sis- 
ter's wrong  at  Shechem,  that  these  sons  of  Jacob 
appear  as  mature  men  with  daughters  to  give 
in  marriage,  though  we  come  to  the  story  with 
fresh  impressions  of  their  tender  childhood.  In 
the  family  tale  of  Paddan-aram,  Judah  could 
scarcely  have  been  three  years  older  than  Joseph, 
and  we  have  just  seen  him  attending  his  father's 
flocks  and  joining  in  the  conspiracy  to  sell  the 
younger  brother  into  Egypt  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen.    Here  we  come  upon  him  in  quite  a  differ- 


JUDAH   AND   HIS   FAMILY  257 

ent  aspect,  and  with  a  family  history  of  his  own 
extending  over  a  period  of  many  years.  The 
compiler  introduced  the  story  with  the  familiar 
"and  it  came  to  pass  at  that  time/'  though  it 
had  no  relation  in  time  or  place  with  what  pre- 
cedes. 

It  is  difficult  to  discern  any  very  clear  ethnic 
significance  in  this  episode  of  Judah  and  Tamar, 
though  some  critics  assume  that  Er  and  Onan 
were  sub-tribes  of  mixed  Judean  and  Canaanite 
blood  which  had  died  out.  The  whole  appears 
much  more  like  a  satire  upon  Judah  and  the 
house  of  David.  It  begins  with  a  union  of  the 
putative  ancestor  of  the  kingdom  with  the  de- 
spised. Canaanite,  which  appears  to  have  been 
illegitimate,  and  not  even  a  marriage,  though 
David  himself  had  taken  more  than  one  Canaan- 
ite wife.  The  offence  of  the  first  son  is  not 
named,  but  that  of  the  second  was  disobedience 
of  the  "law"  which  required  him  to  marry  the 
widow  and  raise  up  an  heir  to  the  oldest  son  of 
the  family.  Failing  that,  he  would  himself  be- 
come the  head  of  the  family,  and  he  refused, 
and  the  Lord  slew  him.  Judah  then  tried  him- 
self to  evade  the  obligation  of  the  law  and  get 
rid  of  Tamar,  who  circumvented  the  design  by 
her  own  wiles.  The  part  she  played  was  that 
s 


258  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

of  one  of  the  female  attendants  of  the  impure 
worship  of  Astarte  (Ashtoreth),  which  served 
further  to  degrade  Judah  by  complicity  in  the 
cult  most  abominable  in  the  eyes  of  the  Puritans 
of  Israel.  The  prostitution  itself  was  not  sub- 
ject to  the  penalty  of  burning",  or  to  any  other 
penalty,  unless  in  the  case  of  Tamar  it  might 
be  regarded  as  equivalent  to  adultery ;  but  she 
was  declared  to  be  "  more  righteous "  than  the 
man  who  had  failed  to  give  her  to  his  younger 
son  as  the  widow  of  the  elder.  That,  indeed,  was 
Judah's  offence,  and  so  far  as  the  story  has  an 
ethical  purpose,  it  was  intended  to  enforce  that 
obligation  of  keeping  the  family  inheritance  in 
the  line  of  the  oldest  son.  It  may  be  that  there 
was  a  disposition  among  the  people  to  evade  it, 
and  that  the  story  of  the  fate  of  Onan  and  the 
humiliation  of  Judah  gave  an  example  of  the 
consequences. 

The  satire  upon  the  family  of  David,  which  is 
involved  in  the  story,  seems  palpable  when  it  is 
closely  studied.  Even  the  name  of  Hirah  the 
Adullamite  is  suggestive  of  Hiram  the  Tyrian, 
friend  of  David  and  Solomon,  and  of  the  refuge 
of  David  when  he  was  an  outlaw.  David  had 
married  more  than  one  Canaanitess,  the  most 
notorious    case    being    that    of    Bath-Sheba,    the 


JUDAH   AND    HIS   FAMILY  259 

sometime  wife  of  the  Hittite  officer,  a  name 
synonymous  with  Bath-Shua  (daughter  of  Shua). 
Bath-Shua  is  given  as  the  "  wife "  of  Judah  in 
the  genealogy  of  the  Book  of  Chronicles. 

The  first  offspring  of  David  and  Bath-Sheba 
died  in  consequence  of  divine  anger,  as  does  the 
firstborn  of  Judah  and  Bath-Shua.  The  letters 
of  the  name  "  Er  "  in  Hebrew,  spelled  backward, 
mean  "bad."  The  substitution  of  a  single  letter 
in  the  Hebrew  changes  Onan  to  Amnon,  the  son 
of  David  who  was  destroyed  on  account  of  sexual 
sin.  The  identity  of  the  name  of  the  outraged 
sister  and  the  wronged  wife  of  Judah's  sons  is 
noticeable,  while  a  close  analogy  to  Amnon's 
iniquity  is  transferred  to  Judah  himself,  while 
he  is  seeking  to  evade  the  obligation  to  give  his 
third  son  to  the  widow  of  the  first  and  second. 
One  letter  inserted  in  the  name  of  that  third 
son  in  the  Hebrew  transforms  it  to  Solomon, 
the  son  of  David  and  Bath-Sheba,  who  became 
the  King  of  Judah  against  whom  Jeroboam  re- 
belled. There  may  be  an  additional  thrust  in 
the  enigmatical  remark  that  "  he  (Judah)  was  at 
Chezib  when  she  (Tamar)  bare  him"  (Shelah), 
for  though  Chezib  may  have  been  the  name  of 
a  place,  it  was  also  a  noun  meaning  falsehood, 
and  was  used  in  that  sense  by  the  prophet  Micah. 


260  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

No  offspring  is  given  to  Shelah  in  the  story, 
but  the  descendants  of  Judah  are  made  to  spring 
from  the  iniquitous  intercourse  with  Tamar,  and 
the  ancestor  of  David  is  Perez,  the  "breach" 
or  "  breaker  through,"  who  superseded  his  twin 
brother  at  birth,  as  Solomon  superseded  an  elder 
brother  in  the  succession  to  the  throne,  which 
finally  led  to  the  Ephraimite  revolt.  If  the  rela- 
tion to  history  of  this  episode  in  the  life  of 
Judah,  which  breaks  so  abruptly  into  the  narra- 
tive of  Joseph's  going  into  Egypt  to  appear  as 
a  model  of  chastity  and  integrity,  is  mere  coin- 
cidence, it  makes  it  only  the  more  remarkable. 

If  it  were  to  be  regarded  as  a  matter  of  actual 
personal  history,  it  would  be  repulsive  from  a 
moral  point  of  view,  but,  while  it  furnishes  a 
picture  of  moral  conditions  at  the  time  of  its 
production,  its  chief  interest  is  in  its  mythical 
or  symbolical  meanings.  It  also  affords  another 
striking  illustration  of  the  varied  character  and 
purpose  of  the  productions  which  were  wrought 
together  in  the  marvellous  composition  of  this 
Book  of  Genesis.  It  furnishes  one  of  the  many 
proofs  which  that  book  contains  within  itself  of  a 
complete  lack  of  historical  quality,  in  the  literal 
sense,  and  of  an  abundance  and  variety  of  mytho- 
logical quality. 


JUDAH   AND   HIS   FAMILY  26 1 

[XXXVIII  i] 

And  it  came  to  pass  at  that  time,  that  Judah  went 
down  from  his  brethren,  and  turned  in  to  a  certain 
Adullamite,  whose  name  was  Hirah.  And  Judah 
saw  there  a  daughter  of  a  certain  Canaanite  whose 
name  was  Shua ;  and  he  took  her,  and  went  in  unto 
her.  And  she  conceived,  and  bare  a  son  ;  and  he 
called  his  name  Er.  And  she  conceived  again,  and 
bare  a  son ;  and  she  called  his  name  Onan.  And 
she  yet  again  bare  a  son,  and  called  his  name  Shelah  ; 
and  he  was  at  Chezib,  when  she  bare  him. 

And  Judah  took  a  wife  for  Er  his  firstborn,  and 
her  name  was  Tamar.  And  Er,  Judah's  firstborn, 
was  wicked  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  ;  and  the  Lord 
slew  him.  And  Judah  said  unto  Onan,  Go  in  unto 
thy  brother's  wife,  and  perform  the  duty  of  an  hus- 
band's brother  unto  her,  and  raise  up  offspring  to  thy 
brother.  And  Onan  knew  that  the  offspring  should 
not  be  his  ;  and  it  came  to  pass,  when  he  went  in 
unto  his  brother's  wife,  that  he  avoided  propagating 
offspring  to  his  brother.  And  the  thing  which  he  did 
was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  ;  and  he  slew  him 
also. 

Then  said  Judah  to  Tamar  his  daughter  in  law, 
Remain  a  widow  in  thy  father's  house,  till  Shelah  my 
son  be  grown  up  :  for  he  said,  Lest  he  also  die,  like 

1  The  explanation  of  this  chapter  as  a  satire  on  the  family 
of  David  was  first  elaborated  by  Dr.  Aaron  Bernstein,  author 
of  "Ursprung  der  Sage  von  Abraham,  Isaak  und  Jakob." 


262  THE   MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

his  brethren.  And  Tamar  went  and  dwelt  in  her 
father's  house.  And  in  process  of  time  Shua's 
daughter,  the  wife  of  Judah,  died;  and  Judah  was 
comforted,  and  went  up  unto  his  sheepshearers  to 
Timnah,  he  and  his  friend  Hirah  the  Adullamite. 
And  it  was  told  Tamar,  saying,  Behold,  thy  father  in 
law  goeth  up  to  Timnah  to  shear  his  sheep.  And 
she  put  off  from  her  the  garments  of  her  widowhood, 
and  covered  herself  with  her  veil,  and  wrapped  her- 
self, and  sat  in  the  gate  of  Enaim,  which  is  by  the 
way  to  Timnah;  for  she  saw  that  Shelah  was  grown 
up,  and  she  was  not  given  unto  him  to  wife. 

When  Judah  saw  her,  he  thought  her  to  be  an  har- 
lot ;  for  she  had  covered  her  face.  And  he  turned 
unto  her  by  the  way,  and  said,  Go  to,  I  pray  thee, 
let  me  come  in  unto  thee  :  for  he  knew  not  that  she 
was  his  daughter  in  law.  And  she  said,  What  wilt 
thou  give  me,  that  thou  mayest  come  in  unto  me? 
And  he  said,  I  will  send  thee  a  kid  of  the  goats  from 
the  flock.  And  she  said,  Wilt  thou  give  me  a  pledge, 
till  thou  send  it?  And  he  said,  What  pledge  shall  1 
give  thee  ?  And  she  said,  Thy  signet  and  thy  cord, 
and  thy  staff  that  is  in  thine  hand.  And  he  gave  them 
to  her,  and  came  in  unto  her,  and  she  conceived  by 
him.  And  she  arose,  and  went  away,  and  put  off 
her  veil  from  her,  and  put  on  the  garments  of  her 
widowhood. 

And  Judah  sent  the  kid  of  the  goats  by  the  hand 
of  his  friend  the  Adullamite,  to  receive  the  pledge 
from  the  woman's  hand ;  but  he  found  her  not. 
Then  he  asked  the  men  of  her  place,  saying,  Where 


JUDAH   AND   HIS   FAMILY  263 

is  the  harlot,  that  was  at  Enaim  by  the  way  side? 
And  they  said,  There  hath  been  no  harlot  here. 
And  he  returned  to  Judah,  and  said,  I  have  not 
found  her ;  and  also  the  men  of  the  place  said, 
There  hath  been  no  harlot  here.  And  Judah  said, 
Let  her  take  it  to  her,  lest  we  be  put  to  shame ; 
behold,  I  sent  this  kid,  and  thou  hast  not  found  her. 

And  it  came  to  pass  about  three  months  after,  that 
it  was  told  Judah,  saying,  Tamar  thy  daughter  in  law 
hath  played  the  harlot ;  and  moreover,  behold,  she  is 
with  child  by  harlotry.  And  Judah  said,  Bring  her 
forth,  and  let  her  be  burnt.  When  she  was  brought 
forth,  she  sent  to  her  father  in  law,  saying,  By  the 
man,  whose  these  are,  am  I  with  child  :  and  she 
said,  Discern,  I  pray  thee,  whose  are  these,  the  sig- 
net, and  the  cords,  and  the  staff.  And  Judah  ac- 
knowledged them,  and  said,  She  is  more  righteous 
than  I ;  forasmuch  as  I  gave  her  not  to  Shelah  my 
son.     And  he  knew  her  again  no  more. 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  time  of  her  travail, 
that,  behold,  twins  were  in  her  womb.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  when  she  travailed,  that  one  put  out  a  hand ; 
and  the  midwife  took  and  bound  upon  his  hand  a 
scarlet  thread,  saying,  This  came  out  first.  And  it 
came  to  pass,  as  he  drew  back  his  hand,  that,  behold, 
his  brother  came  out ;  and  she  said,  Wherefore  hast 
thou  made  a  breach  for  thyself?  therefore  his  name 
was  called  Perez.  And  afterward  came  out  his 
brother,  that  had  the  scarlet  thread  upon  his  hand ; 
and  his  name  was  called  Zerah. 


XXXIII 

JOSEPH    A    SLAVE    AND    IN    PRISON 

The  account  of  Joseph's  life  in  Egypt  before 
he  was  brought  to  the  notice  of  Pharaoh  contains 
distinct  traces  of  the  blending  of  two  different 
stories  of  which  we  have  seen  evidences  already. 
According  to  the  opening  statement  he  was 
bought  from  the  Ishmaelites  by  Potiphar,  chief 
of  Pharaoh's  palace  guard,  and  the  original  lan- 
guage implies  that  this  person  was  a  eunuch. 
He  is  identified  in  the  episode  of  the  chief 
"  butler  "  and  the  chief  "  baker  " —  more  properly 
the  chief  cup  bearer  and  chief  purveyor  of  bread 
—  and  also  in  the  relation  of  this  episode  to  the 
king,  with  the  "  keeper  of  the  prison,"  as  from 
his  office  he  might  well  be. 

This  could  hardly  have  been  the  same  man  as 
Joseph's  "  master  the  Egyptian,"  whose  wife 
afforded  such  a  serious  test  of  his  personal  virtue. 
This  "  Egyptian  "  was  evidently  a  man  of  sub- 
stance to  whose  confidence  the  "  Hebrew  servant  " 
so  commended  himself  that  he  was  put  in  charge 
of  "  all  that  he  had  in  the  house  and  in  the  field." 

264 


JOSEPH   A   SLAVE   AND   IN   PRISON  265 

Neither  this,  nor  the  tempting  wife,  is  suggestive 
of  the  "captain  of  the  guard."  Moreover,  are 
we  not  told  that  Joseph's  angry  master  "put  him 
into  prison,"  and  that  he  gained  favor  in  the  sight 
of  the  "  keeper  of  the  prison  "  and  had  all  the 
prisoners  put  in  his  charge,  and  does  it  not  pres- 
ently appear  that  it  was  the  "  captain  of  the 
guard"  himself  who  was  keeper  of  the  prison? 
Surely  the  Egyptian  master,  whose  favor  Joseph 
had  first  won,  and  then  lost  through  the  wiles  of 
the  wife,  was  not  suddenly  transformed  into  the 
keeper  of  the  prison  to  have  his  favor  regained. 

Apparently  the  story  which  represented  Joseph 
as  having  been  sold  by  his  brethren  to  the  Ishmael- 
ites,  also  represented  him  as  being  bought  by 
the  "  captain  of  the  guard,"  who  had  charge  of 
the  prison,  and  as  rising  in  the  favor  of  that  offi- 
cer and  having  the  care  of  the  prisoners  com- 
mitted to  him ;  while  the  other  story,  which 
represented  Joseph  as  having  been  "  stolen  away" 
by  the  Midianites,  told  of  his  having  been  sold 
to  a  rich  Egyptian  who  had  him  thrown  into 
prison  on  account  of  the  incident  of  the  wife's 
intrigue.  The  name  of  the  man  is  not  mentioned 
in  what  we  have  of  this  version  of  the  story,  and 
the  wife  was  doubtless  not  that  of  Potiphar  the 
eunuch. 


266  THE    MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

Probably  both  stories  led  up  to  the  dreams 
which  were  to  be  the  means  of  bringing  Joseph 
to  the  attention  of  Pharaoh,  a  common  device  in 
Oriental  tales,  and  traces  of  the  difference  dis- 
appear except  where  Joseph  speaks  of  himself  as 
having  been  "  stolen  away  out  of  the  land  of  the 
Hebrews  "  and  "  put  into  a  dungeon."  This  can 
hardly  be  from  the  version  in  which  he  was  said 
to  have  been  sold  to  the  Ishmaelites  and  bought 
by  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  prison,  whose  chief 
deputy  he  became.  In  connection  with  this  phrase, 
"land  of  the  Hebrews,"  and  that  used  by  the 
Egyptian's  wife,  "  the  Hebrew  servant,"  it  is  to 
be  observed  that  the  Israelites  were  not  called 
"  Hebrews,"  and  Canaan  could  not  have  been 
designated  as  the  "land  of  the  Hebrews"  until 
sometime  after  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom. 
The  locution  is  that  of  the  time  of  the  writer. 

As  we  have  had  occasion  to  say  so  often, 
these  inconsistencies  are  unimportant  when  we 
consider  the  genuine  mythological  character  of 
the  writings,  but  they  are  extremely  interesting 
as  evidences  of  the  manner  of  their  production. 

[XXXIX-XL] 

[And  Joseph  was  brought  down  to  Egypt ;  and 
Potiphar,  an  officer  of  Pharaoh's,  the  captain  of  the 


JOSEPH   A   SLAVE   AND   IN   PRISON  267 

guard,  an  Egyptian,  bought  him  of  the  hand  of  the 
Ishmaelites,  which  had  brought  him  down  thither.] 

And  the  Lord  was  with  Joseph,  and  he  was  a 
prosperous  man ;  and  he  was  in  the  house  of  his 
master  the  Egyptian.  And  his  master  saw  that  the 
Lord  was  with  him,  and  that  the  Lord  made  all 
that  he  did  to  prosper  in  his  hand.  And  Joseph 
found  grace  in  his  sight,  and  he  ministered  unto 
him ;  and  he  made  him  overseer  over  his  house, 
and  all  that  he  had  he  put  into  his  hand.  And  it 
came  to  pass  from  the  time  that  he  made  him  over- 
seer in  his  house,  and  over  all  that  he  had,  that  the 
Lord  blessed  the  Egyptian's  house  for  Joseph's 
sake ;  and  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  was  upon  all 
that  he  had,  in  the  house  and  in  the  field.  And  he 
left  all  that  he  had  in  Joseph's  hand ;  and  he  knew 
not  aught  that  was  with  him,  save  the  bread  which 
he  did  eat. 

And  Joseph  was  comely,  and  well  favoured.  And 
it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,  that  his  master's 
wife  cast  her  eyes  upon  Joseph ;  and  she  said,  Lie 
with  me.  But  he  refused,  and  said  unto  his  mas- 
ter's wife,  Behold,  my  master  knoweth  not  what  is 
with  me  in  the  house,  and  he  hath  put  all  that  he 
hath  into  my  hand ;  there  is  none  greater  in  this 
house  than  I ;  neither  hath  he  kept  back  any  thing 
from  me  but  thee,  because  thou  art  his  wife  ;  how 
then  can  I  do  this  great  wickedness,  and  sin  against 
God  ?  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  she  spake  to  Joseph 
day  by  day,  that  he  hearkened  not  unto  her,  to  lie 
by  her,  or  to  be  with  her.     And  it  came  to  pass 


268  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

about  this  time,  that  he  went  into  the  house  to  do 
his  work  ;  and  there  was  none  of  the  men  of  the 
house  there  within.  And  she  caught  him  by  his 
garment,  saying,  Lie  with  me  :  and  he  left  his  gar- 
ment in  her  hand,  and  fled,  and  got  him  out. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  she  saw  that  he  had 
left  his  garment  in  her  hand,  and  was  fled  forth, 
that  she  called  unto  the  men  of  her  house,  and 
spake  unto  them,  saying,  See,  he  hath  brought  in  an 
Hebrew  unto  us  to  mock  us  ;  he  came  in  unto  me 
to  lie  with  me,  and  I  cried  with  a  loud  voice  ;  and 
it  came  to  pass,  when  he  heard  that  I  lifted  up  my 
voice  and  cried,  that  he  left  his  garment  by  me,  and 
fled,  and  got  him  out.  And  she  laid  up  his  garment 
by  her,  until  his  master  came  home.  And  she 
spake  unto  him  according  to  these  words,  saying, 
The  Hebrew  servant,  which  thou  hast  brought  unto 
us,  came  in  unto  me  to  mock  me  ;  and  it  came  to 
pass,  as  I  lifted  up  my  voice  and  cried,  that  he  left 
his  garment  by  me,  and  fled  out.  And  it  came  to 
pass,  when  his  master  heard  the  words  of  his  wife, 
which  she  spake  unto  him,  saying,  After  this  manner 
did  thy  servant  to  me  ;  that  his  wrath  was  kindled. 

And  Joseph's  master  took  him,  and  put  him  into 
the  prison,  the  place  where  the  king's  prisoners 
were  bound  ;  and  he  was  there  in  the  prison.  But 
the  Lord  was  with  Joseph,  and  shewed  kindness 
unto  him,  and  gave  him  favour  in  the  sight  of  the 
keeper  of  the  prison.  And  the  keeper  of  the 
prison  committed  to  Joseph's  hand  all  the  prison- 
ers that  were  in  the  prison  ;   and  whatsoever  they 


JOSEPH   A   SLAVE   AND   IN   PRISON  269 

did  there,  he  was  the  doer  of  it.  The  keeper  of  the 
prison  looked  not  to  any  thing  that  was  under  his 
hand,  because  the  Lord  was  with  him  ;  and  that 
which  he  did,  the  Lord  made  it  to  prosper. 

And  it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,  that  the 
cup  bearer  of  the  king  of  Egypt  and  his  purveyor  of 
bread  offended  their  lord  the  king  of  Egypt.  And 
Pharaoh  was  wroth  against  his  two  officers,  against 
the  chief  of  the  cup  bearers,  and  against  the  chief  of 
the  purveyors  of  bread.  And  he  put  them  in  ward 
in  the  house  of  the  captain  of  the  guard,  into  the 
prison,  \_the  place  where  Joseph  was  bound] .  And 
the  captain  of  the  guard  charged  Joseph  with  them, 
and  he  ministered  unto  them ;  and  they  continued 
a  season  in  ward. 

And  they  dreamed  a  dream  both  of  them,  each 
man  his  dream,  in  one  night,  each  man  according  to 
the  interpretation  of  his  dream,  the  cup  bearer  and 
the  purveyor  of  bread  of  the  king  of  Egypt,  who 
were  bound  in  the  prison.  And  Joseph  came  in 
unto  them  in  the  morning,  and  saw  them,  and,  be- 
hold, they  were  sad.  And  he  asked  Pharaoh's  offi- 
cers \jhat  were  with  him  in  ward  in  his  master's 
house'],  saying,  Wherefore  look  ye  so  sadly  to-day? 
And  they  said  unto  him,  We  have  dreamed  a  dream, 
and  there  is  none  that  can  interpret  it.  And  Joseph 
said  unto  them,  Do  not  interpretations  belong  to 
God  ?  tell  it  me,  I  pray  you. 

And  the  chief  cup  bearer  told  his  dream  to  Joseph, 
and  said  to  him,  In  my  dream,  behold,  a  vine  was 


270  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

before  m€  ;  and  in  the  vine  were  three  branches  ; 
and  it  was  as  though  it  budded,  and  its  blossoms 
shot  forth  ;  and  the  clusters  thereof  brought  forth 
ripe  grapes ;  and  Pharaoh's  cup  was  in  my  hand  ; 
and  I  took  the  grapes,  and  pressed  them  into  Pha- 
raoh's cup,  and  I  gave  the  cup  into  Pharaoh's  hand. 
And  Joseph  said  unto  him,  This  is  the  interpretation 
of  it :  the  three  branches  are  three  days;  within  yet 
three  days  shall  Pharaoh  lift  up  thine  head,  and 
restore  thee  unto  thine  office  ;  and  thou  shalt  give 
Pharaoh's  cup  into  his  hand,  after  the  former  manner 
when  thou  wast  his  cup  bearer.  But  have  me  in  thy 
remembrance  when  it  shall  be  well  with  thee,  and 
shew  kindness,  I  pray  thee,  unto  me,  and  make  men- 
tion of  me  unto  Pharaoh,  and  bring  me  out  of  this 
house  ;  for  indeed  I  was  stolen  away  out  of  the  land 
of  the  Hebrews  :  \_and  here  also  have  I  done  nothing 
that  they  should  put  me  into  the  dungeon.'] 

When  the  chief  purveyor  of  bread  saw  that  the 
interpretation  was  good,  he  said  unto  Joseph,  I  also 
was  in  my  dream,  and,  behold,  three  baskets  of  white 
bread  were  on  my  head  ;  and  in  the  uppermost  bas- 
ket there  was  of  all  manner  of  baked  food  for  Pha- 
raoh ;  and  the  birds  did  eat  them  out  of  the  basket 
upon  my  head.  And  Joseph  answered  and  said, 
This  is  the  interpretation  thereof :  the  three  baskets 
are  three  days  ;  within  yet  three  days  shall  Pharaoh 
lift  up  thy  head  from  off  thee,  and  shall  hang  thee  on 
a  tree  ;  and  the  birds  shall  eat  thy  flesh  from  off  thee. 
And  it  came  to  pass  the  third  day,  which  was  Pha- 
raoh's birthday,  that  he  made  a  feast  unto  all  his  ser- 


JOSEPH    A   SLAVE   AND   IN   PRISON  2J\ 

vants ;  and  he  lifted  up  the  head  of  the  chief  cup 
bearer  and  the  head  of  the  chief  purveyor  of  bread 
among  his  servants.  And  he  restored  the  chief  cup 
bearer  unto  his  office  again,  and  he  gave  the  cup 
into  Pharaoh's  hand  ;  but  he  hanged  the  chief  pur- 
veyor of  bread,  as  Joseph  had  interpreted  to  them. 
Yet  did  not  the  chief  cup  bearer  remember  Joseph, 
but  forgot  him. 


XXXIV 

Joseph's  elevation  to  power 

There  is  hardly  room  for  doubt  that  the  origi- 
nal story  of  Joseph  was  written  in  the  Northern 
Kingdom  of  Israel  in  the  time  of  Jeroboam,  its 
first  king.  There  is  no  indication  that  the  name 
Joseph  was  applied  until  after  that  time,  as  a 
general  designation  for  the  people  of  the  nation 
made  up  chiefly  of  the  tribes  of  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh,  with  outlying  territory  known  by 
names  assumed  to  have  been  originally  those  of 
other  tribes.  The  etymology  that  derived  Joseph 
from  a  word  meaning  separation,  or  taking  away, 
may  have  had  reference  to  the  division  of  the 
kingdom.  It  is  a  plausible  surmise  that  Jero- 
boam himself  was  the  originator  of  the  story, 
if  not  the  inventor  of  the  name  attributed  to  the 
ancestor  of  his  people. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Jeroboam  had 
headed  a  revolt  against  Solomon  and  fled  "  unto 
Shishak  king  of  Egypt."  It  may  be  inferred 
that  he  stood  high  in  the  favor  of  that  ruler  from 

272 


JOSEPH'S   ELEVATION  TO   POWER  273 

the  fact  that  a  few  years  after  he  returned  and 
set   up    his   throne    at    Shechem    as  king  of   the 
revolted    tribes,     Shishak    gave    him    substantial 
support  by  invading  the  Kingdom  of  Judah  and 
laying  Jerusalem  under  contribution.     Jeroboam, 
who  was  clearly  the  ablest  Israelite  of  his  time, 
had  all  the  knowledge  of   Egypt  and  of  its  lore 
necessary  for  framing  the  incidents  of  the  Joseph 
story,   and    he    had   the    motive  for   exalting   the 
prototype  of  his  nation  at  the  expense  of  the  rest 
of    Israel,   and  exhibiting  a  kindly  spirit  toward 
Pharaoh    and    his    realm,  —  ever    the    objects    of 
hatred  to  Judean  writers.     It  was  even  a  matter 
of  pride  to  represent  Ephraim  and  Manasseh  as 
half  Egyptian  in  blood,  though  that  had  been  cor- 
ruption in  the  story  of   Ishmael,  and  in  most  of 
the  legends  intermarriage  with   peoples  not  akin 
to  the   seed  of  Abraham  was  degradation.     The 
man   who    set   up    golden    calves    as    symbols    of 
Jehovah  at  Bethel  and  Dan  could  even  take  the 
mother    of    his    people    from    the    priesthood    of 
Heliopolis. 

The  story  of  Joseph's  elevation  from  slavery 
and  imprisonment  to  power  in  the  land  of  Egypt 
is  contained  in  the  forty-first  chapter  of  Genesis, 
in  the  traditional  division  of  that  book.  It  con- 
tains no  element  of  probability  as  matter  of  his- 


274  TIIK   MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

torical  fact,  and  is  supported  by  no  record  of 
such  an  extraordinary  event  as  seven  successive 
years  of  marvellous  plenty,  succeeded  by  seven 
years  of  absolute  dearth  in  the  Nile  region  and 
all  the  neighboring  lands,  and  as  the  exaltation  of 
a  Hebrew  slave  to  control  of  all  the  affairs  of  the 
great  Kingdom  of  Egypt  in  the  height  of  its  power. 
The  material  of  Pharaoh's  dreams  and  their 
fulfilment,  and  of  Joseph's  fabulous  exaltation, 
is  such  stuff  as  myths  are  made  of,  and  the 
evident  purpose  of  the  whole  story  is  the  glori- 
fication of  Jeroboam's  kingdom.  To  this  the  ac- 
count of  Joseph's  treatment  by  his  brothers,  his 
being  sold  into  slavery  and  thrown  into  prison, 
and  being  ever  attended  by  divine  care,  was  pre- 
liminary. There  is  little  trace  of  the  variant  of 
the  main  story  in  Chapter  xli.,  though  Joseph 
is  referred  to  by  the  chief  cup  bearer  as  "servant 
to  the  captain  of  the  guard  "  in  the  prison,  and 
is  afterwards  said  to  have  been  brought  "hastily 
out  of  the  dungeon."  The  original  story,  it  is  to 
be  remembered,  had  passed  through  the  hands  of 
at  least  two  writers  before  the  permanent  form 
was  reached,  and  had  assumed  two  varying  ver- 
sions, one  of  which  was  adopted  as  the  basis  of 
a  compilation  and  modified  with  material  from 
the  other  as  it  suited   the   compiler's  notions  of 


JOSEPH'S   ELEVATION  TO   POWER  275 

completeness.      What    appear    to    be    interjected 
sentences  are  put  in  brackets  below. 

[XLI] 

And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  two  full  years, 
that  Pharaoh  dreamed  ;  and,  behold,  he  stood  by  the 
river.  And,  behold,  there  came  up  out  of  the  river 
seven  kine,  well  favoured  and  fatfleshed ;  and  they 
fed  in  the  reedgrass.  And,  behold,  seven  other  kine 
came  up  after  them  out  of  the  river,  ill  favoured  and 
leanfieshed,  and  stood  by  the  other  kine  upon  the 
brink  of  the  river.  And  the  ill  favoured  and  lean- 
fieshed kine  did  eat  up  the  seven  well  favoured  and 
fat  kine.     So  Pharaoh  awoke. 

And  he  slept  and  dreamed  a  second  time ;  and, 
behold,  seven  ears  of  corn  came  up  upon  one  stalk, 
rank  and  good.  And,  behold,  seven  ears,  thin  and 
blasted  with  the  east  wind,  sprung  up  after  them. 
And  the  thin  ears  swallowed  up  the  seven  rank  and 
full  ears.  And  Pharaoh  awoke,  and,  behold,  it  was 
a  dream. 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  morning  that  his  spirit 
was  troubled ;  and  he  sent  and  called  for  all  the  di- 
viners of  Egypt  and  all  the  wise  men  thereof,  and 
Pharaoh  told  them  his  dream  ;  but  there  was  none 
that  could  interpret  them  unto  Pharaoh.  Then 
spake  the  chief  cup  bearer  unto  Pharaoh,  saying,  I 
do  remember  my  faults  this  day.  Pharaoh  was  wroth 
with  his  servants,  and  put  me  in  ward  in  the  house 
of  the  captain  of  the  guard,  me  and  the  chief  pur- 


276  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

veyor  of  bread,  and  we  dreamed  a  dream  in  one 
night,  I  and  he ;  we  dreamed  each  man  according 
to  the  interpretation  of  his  dream.  And  there  was 
with  us  there  a  young  man,  an  Hebrew,  servant  to 
the  captain  of  the  guard;  and  we  told  him,  and  he 
interpreted  to  us  our  dreams,  to  each  man  according 
to  his  dream  he  did  interpret.  And  it  came  to  pass, 
as  he  interpreted  to  us,  so  it  was ;  me  he  restored 
unto  mine  office,  and  him  he  hanged. 

Then  Pharaoh  sent  and  called  Joseph,  [and  they 
brought  him  hastily  out  of  the  dungeon  :]  and  he 
shaved  himself,  and  changed  his  raiment,  and  came 
in  unto  Pharaoh.  And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  I 
have  dreamed  a  dream,  and  there  is  none  that  can 
interpret  it ;  and  I  have  heard  say  of  thee,  that  when 
thou  hearest  a  dream  thou  canst  interpret  it.  And 
Joseph  answered  Pharaoh,  saying,  It  is  not  in  me  ; 
God  shall  give  Pharaoh  an  answer  of  peace. 

And  Pharaoh  spake  unto  Joseph,  In  my  dream, 
behold,  I  stood  upon  the  brink  of  the  river ;  and, 
behold,  there  came  up  out  of  the  river  seven  kine, 
fatfleshed  and  well  favoured,  and  they  fed  in  the 
reedgrass ;  and,  behold,  seven  other  kine  came  up 
after  them  poor  and  very  ill  favoured  and  leanfleshed, 
such  as  I  never  saw  in  all  the  land  of  Egypt  for  bad- 
ness, and  the  lean  and  ill  favoured  kine  did  eat  up 
the  first  seven  fat  kine  ;  and  when  they  had  eaten 
them  up,  it  could  not  be  known  that  they  had  eaten 
them  ;  but  they  were  still  ill  favoured,  as  at  the 
beginning.  So  I  awoke.  And  I  saw  in  my  dream, 
and,  behold,  seven  ears  came  up  upon  one  stalk,  full 


JOSEPH'S   ELEVATION  TO  POWER  277 

and  good ;  and,  behold,  seven  ears,  withered,  thin, 
and  blasted  with  the  east  wind,  sprung  up  after 
them ;  and  the  thin  ears  swallowed  up  the  seven 
good  ears ;  and  I  told  it  unto  the  diviners,  but  there 
was  none  that  could  declare  it  to  me: 

And  Joseph  said  unto  Pharaoh,  The  dream  of 
Pharaoh  is  one ;  what  God  is  about  to  do  he  hath 
declared  unto  Pharaoh.  The  seven  good  kine  are 
seven  years ;  and  the  seven  good  ears  are  seven 
years ;  the  dream  is  one.  And  the  seven  lean  and 
ill  favoured  kine  that  came  up  after  them  are  seven 
years,  and  also  the  seven  empty  ears  blasted  with 
the  east  wind ;  they  shall  be  seven  years  of  famine. 
That  is  the  thing  which  I  spake  unto  Pharaoh ; 
what  God  is  about  to  do  he  hath  shewed  unto  Pha- 
raoh. Behold,  there  come  seven  years  of  great  plenty 
throughout  all  the  land  of  Egypt ;  and  there  shall 
arise  after  them  seven  years  of  famine  ;  and  all  the 
plenty  shall  be  forgotten  in  the  land  of  Egypt ;  and 
the  famine  shall  consume  the  land  ;  and  the  plenty 
shall  not  be  known  in  the  land  by  reason  of  that 
famine  which  followeth,  for  it  shall  be  very  griev- 
ous. And  for  that  the  dream  was  doubled  unto 
Pharaoh  twice,  it  is  because  the  thing  is  established 
by  God,  and  God  will  shortly  bring  it  to  pass.  Now 
therefore  let  Pharaoh  look  out  a  man  discreet  and 
wise,  and  set  him  over  the  land  of  Egypt.  Let  Pha- 
raoh do  this,  and  let  him  appoint  overseers  over  the 
land,  and  take  up  the  fifth  part  of  the  land  of  Egypt 
in  the  seven  plenteous  years.  And  let  them  gather 
all  the  food  of  these  good  years  that  come,  and  lay 


2;8  THE    MYTHS    OF    ISRAEL 

up  grain  under  the  hand  of  Pharaoh  for  food  in  the 
cities,  and  let  them  keep  it.  And  the  food  shall  be 
for  a  store  to  the  land  against  the  seven  years  of 
famine,  which  shall  be  in  the  land  of  Egypt ;  that 
the  land  perish  not  through  the  famine.  And  the 
thing  was  good  in  the  eyes  of  Pharaoh,  and  in  the 
eyes  of  all  his  servants. 

And  Pharaoh  said  unto  his  servants,  Can  we  find 
such  a  one  as  this,  a  man  in  whom  the  spirit  of  God 
is?  And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  Forasmuch  as 
God  hath  shewed  thee  all  this,  there  is  none  so  dis- 
creet and  wise  as  thou,  thou  shalt  be  over  my 
house,  and  according  unto  thy  word  shall  all  my 
people  be  ruled ;  only  in  the  throne  will  I  be 
greater  than  thou.  And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph, 
See,  I  have  set  thee  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt.  And 
Pharaoh  took  off  his  signet  ring  from  his  hand,  and 
put  it  upon  Joseph's  hand,  and  arrayed  him  in  vest- 
ures of  fine  linen,  and  put  a  gold  chain  about  his 
neck  ;  and  he  made  him  to  ride  in  the  second  char- 
iot which  he  had ;  and  they  cried  before  him,  Bow 
the  knee  :  and  he  set  him  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt. 
And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  I  am  Pharaoh,  and 
without  thee  shall  no  man  lift  up  his  hand  or  his  foot 
in  all  the  land  of  Egypt. 

And  Pharaoh  called  Joseph's  name  Zaphenath- 
paneah ;  and  he  gave  him  to  wife  Asenath  the 
daughter  of  Poti-phera  priest  of  On.  And  Joseph 
went  out  over  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  Joseph  was 
thirty  years  old  when  he  stood  before  Pharaoh  king 
of  Egypt.     And  Joseph  went  out  from  the  presence 


JOSEPH'S   ELEVATION   TO   POWER  279 

of  Pharaoh,  and  went  throughout  all  the  land  of 
Egypt,  And  in  the  seven  plenteous  years  the  earth 
brought  forth  by  handfuls.  And  he  gathered  up  all 
the  food  of  the  seven  years  which  were  in  the  land 
of  Egypt,  and  laid  up  the  food  in  the  cities  ;  the 
food  of  the  field,  which  was  round  about  every  city, 
laid  he  up  in  the  same.  [And  Joseph  laid  up  grain 
as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  very  much,  until  he  left  num- 
bering ;  for  it  was  without  number.] 

And  unto  Joseph  were  born  two  sons  before  the 
year  of  famine  came,  which  Asenath  the  daughter  of 
Poti-phera  priest  of  On  bare  unto  him.  [And  Joseph 
called  the  name  of  the  firstborn  Manasseh  :  For, 
said  he,  God  hath  made  me  forget  all  my  toil,  and 
all  my  father's  house.  And  the  name  of  the  second 
called  he  Ephraim  :  For  God  hath  made  me  fruit- 
ful in  the  land  of  my  affliction.] 

And  the  seven  years  of  plenty,  that  was  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,  came  to  an  end.  And  the  seven 
years  of  famine  began  to  come,  according  as  Joseph 
had  said,  and  there  was  famine  in  all  lands ;  but  in 
all  the  land  of  Egypt  there  was  bread.  And  when 
all  the  land  of  Egypt  was  famished,  the  people  cried 
to  Pharaoh  for  bread,  and  Pharaoh  said  unto  all 
the  Egyptians,  Go  unto  Joseph  ;  what  he  saith  to 
you,  do.  And  the  famine  was  over  all  the  face  of 
the  earth  ;  and  Joseph  opened  all  the  storehouses, 
and  sold  unto  the  Egyptians  ;  and  the  famine  was 
sore  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  all  countries  came 
into  Egypt  to  Joseph  for  to  buy  grain  ;  because  the 
famine  was  sore  in  all  the  earth. 


XXXV 

Joseph's  brothers  seek  relief  in  egypt 

The  artless  simplicity  of  primitive  mythism 
appears  throughout  the  narrative,  which  tells  of 
Joseph's  ten  brothers  seeking  relief  from  famine 
in  Egypt,  while  he  was  "  lord  of  the  land." 
Where  Jacob  then  dwelt,  "  in  the  land  of  Canaan," 
does  not  appear,  but  our  last  view  of  him  was 
when  he  sent  his  favorite  son  from  ;<  the  vale  of 
Hebron  "  to  his  brethren  feeding  their  flocks  in 
Shechem  and  wandering  to  Dothan ;  and  later 
we  shall  find  him  coming  from  somewhere  to 
Beersheba.  But  wherever  the  patriarch  and  his 
family  might  now  be,  it  must  be  many  days' 
journey  from  the  storehouses  of  Egypt.  But  the 
ten  sons,  each  with  an  ass  and  a  sack,  make 
their  way  in  time  of  famine  to  Joseph,  who  is 
personally  selling  supplies  to  all  comers.  It  had 
never  occurred  to  him  in  his  nine  years  of  pros- 
perity and  power  to  inquire  after  the  family,  and 
his  extraordinary  advancement  had  never  reached 
their  ears,  though  communication  now  seems  so 
easy. 

280 


HIS  BROTHERS  SEEK  RELIEF  IN  EGYPT   28 1 

Apparently  the  brothers  had  no  food  on  their 
way  down,  and  on  the  return  the  contents  of 
the  nine  sacks,  borne  on  their  humble  beasts  of 
burden,  —  for  Simeon  was  left  behind,' — must  have 
sufficed  for  the  grain  which  was  to  relieve  the 
famine  of  their  "  houses,"  the  "  provision  for  the 
way,"  and  the  "provender"  for  the  animals.  It 
would  also  appear  that  only  one  of  the  sacks 
was  opened  at  the  "  lodging  place,"  for  it  was 
after  they  reached  home  that  each  man's  money 
was  found  in  his  sack,  that  of  only  one  having 
been  previously  discovered.  No  fairy  tale  could 
show  a  more  charming  disregard  of  probabilities, 
or  even  possibilities,  than  this  simple  narrative. 
It  may  seem  rather  far-fetched  to  assume  that 
Simeon  was  the  name  used  for  the  brother  left 
as  a  hostage,  because  of  the  tradition  of  a  tribe 
of  Simeon  which  had  disappeared  near  the  bor- 
ders of  Egypt ;  but  such  slight  suggestions  were 
prolific  of  the  incidents  of  these  old  legends. 

Here  Reuben  appears  as  reminding  the  other 
brothers  of  their  fault,  when  they  find  themselves 
in  trouble,  and  as  afterwards  assuring  the  aged 
father  of  Benjamin's  safety,  in  case  he  is  taken 
to  Egypt  in  fulfilment  of  the  pledge  to  "  the  lord 
of  the  land,"  though  Judah  becomes  the  surety 
when   the  second  trip  is  actually  made.     In   this 


282  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

is  an  evident  trace  of  the  two  versions  of  the 
story  as  they  first  appear  in  Chapter  xxxvii. 

The  most  striking  quality  in  this  passage,  after 
the  evidence  afforded  by  its  incidents  of  the  mythi- 
cal character  of  the  whole,  is  the  subtle  suggestion 
of  the  sense  of  guilt  overpowering  the  brothers. 
It  is  supposed  to  be  some  twenty  years  since  the 
disappearance  of  Joseph,  and  all  the  family  re- 
gard him  as  dead.  The  brothers  have  no  sus- 
picion that  the  man  whom  they  find  in  charge 
of  the  distribution  of  food  in  Egypt  has  any 
other  relation  to  them  than  any  lordly  officer  in 
that  position  would  have.  But  their  rough  and 
suspicious  treatment  awakens  memory  of  the 
wronged  brother,  and  they  at  once  attribute  it 
to  their  guilt  concerning  him.  So  when  the 
money  is  found  in  the  sack,  they  are  alarmed  at 
an  incident  trivial  in  itself,  as  an  omen  of  evil, 
—  as  something  that  God  had  done  unto  them. 

There  is  much  pathos  in  the  old  father's  sense 
of  bereavement,  but  the  slaying  of  Reuben's 
sons,  if  any  harm  should  come  to  Benjamin, 
could  hardly  be  regarded  as  a  comfort  or  a  satis- 
factory indemnity  in  a  tale  of  real  life.  The 
story,  with  the  exception  of  interpolated  frag- 
ments here  inclosed  in  brackets,  appears  to  be 
from  the  version  which  speaks  of  Jacob,  and  not 


HIS  BROTHERS  SEEK  RELIEF  IN  EGYPT   283 

of    Israel,    as    the   paternal   patriarch,    and   gives 
Reuben  instead  of  Judah  a  prominent  part. 

[XLII] 

Now  Jacob  saw  that  there  was  grain  in  Egypt, 
and  Jacob  said  unto  his  sons,  Why  do  ye  look  one 
upon  another?  And  he  said,  Behold,  I  have  heard 
that  there  is  grain  in  Egypt ;  get  you  down  thither, 
and  buy  for  us  from  thence,  that  we  may  live,  and 
not  die.  And  Joseph's  ten  brethren  went  down  to 
buy  grain  from  Egypt.  But  Benjamin,  Joseph's 
brother,  Jacob  sent  not  with  his  brethren ;  for  he 
said,  Lest  peradventure  mischief  befall  him.  [And 
the  sons  of  Israel  came  to  buy  among  those  that 
came,  for  the  famine  was  in  the  land  of  Canaan.] 

And  Joseph  was  the  governor  over  the  land ;  he 
it  was  that  sold  to  all  the  people  of  the  land ;  and 
Joseph's  brethren  came,  and  bowed  down  them- 
selves to  him  with  their  faces  to  the  earth.  And 
Joseph  saw  his  brethren,  and  he  knew  them,  but 
made  himself  strange  unto  them,  and  spake  roughly 
with  them ;  and  he  said  unto  them,  Whence  come 
ye?  And  they  said,  From  the  land  of  Canaan  to 
buy  food.  And  Joseph  knew  his  brethren,  but  they 
knew  not  him. 

And  Joseph  remembered  the  dreams  which  he 
dreamed  of  them,  and  said  unto  them,  Ye  are  spies ; 
to  see  the  nakedness  of  the  land  ye  are  come.  And 
they  said  unto  him,  Nay,  my  lord,  but  to  buy  food 
are   thy   servants   come.      We   are   all   one    man's 


284  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

sons  ;  we  are  true  men,  thy  servants  are  no  spies. 
And  he  said  unto  them,  Nay,  but  to  see  the  naked- 
ness of  the  land  ye  are  come.  And  they  said,  We 
thy  servants  are  twelve  brethren,  the  sons  of  one 
man  in  the  land  of  Canaan ;  and,  behold,  the 
youngest  is  this  day  with  our  father,  and  one  is 
not. 

And  Joseph  said  unto  them,  That  is  it  that  I 
spake  unto  you,  saying,  Ye  are  spies  ;  hereby  ye 
shall  be  proved  ;  by  the  life  of  Pharaoh  ye  shall 
not  go  forth  hence,  except  your  youngest  brother 
come  hither.  Send  one  of  you,  and  let  him  fetch 
your  brother,  and  ye  shall  be  bound,  that  your 
words  may  be  proved,  whether  there  be  truth  in 
you  ;  or  else  by  the  life  of  Pharaoh  surely  ye  are 
spies.  And  he  put  them  all  together  into  ward 
three  days.  And  Joseph  said  unto  them  the  third 
day,  This  do,  and  live,  for  I  fear  God  ;  if  ye  be 
true  men,  let  one  of  your  brethren  be  bound  in 
your  prison  house  ;  but  go  ye,  carry  grain  for  the 
famine  of  your  houses,  and  bring  your  youngest 
brother  unto  me  ;  so  shall  your  words  be  verified, 
and  ye  shall  not  die.     And  they  did  so. 

And  they  said  one  to  another,  We  are  verily 
guilty  concerning  our  brother,  in  that  we  saw  the 
distress  of  his  soul,  when  he  besought  us,  and  we 
would  not  hear ;  therefore  is  this  distress  come 
upon  us.  And  Reuben  answered  them,  saying, 
Spake  I  not  unto  you,  saying,  Do  not  sin  against 
the  child;  and  ye  would  not  hear?  therefore  also, 
behold,  his  blood  is  required.     And  they  knew  not 


HIS  BROTHERS  SEEK  RELIEF  IN  EGYPT   285 

that  Joseph  understood  them ;  for  there  was  an 
interpreter  between  them.  And  he  turned  himself 
about  from  them,  and  wept ;  and  he  returned  to 
them,  and  spake  to  them,  and  took  Simeon  from 
among  them,  and  bound  him  before  their  eyes. 

Then  Joseph  commanded  to  fill  their  vessels 
with  grain,  and  to  restore  every  man's  money  into 
his  sack,  and  to  give  them  provision  for  the  way ; 
and  thus  was  it  done  unto  them.  And  they  laded 
their  asses  with  their  grain,  and  departed  thence. 

[And  as  one  of  them  opened  his  sack  to  give 
his  ass  provender  in  the  lodging  place,  he  espied 
his  money ;  and,  behold,  it  was  in  the  mouth  of 
his  sack.  And  he  said  unto  his  brethren,  My 
money  is  restored ;  and,  lo,  it  is  even  in  my  sack ; 
and  their  heart  failed  them,  and  they  turned  trem- 
bling one  to  another,  saying,  What  is  this  that  God 
hath  done  unto  us  ?] 

And  they  came  unto  Jacob  their  father  unto  the 
land  of  Canaan,  and  told  him  all  that  had  befallen 
them  ;  saying,  The  man,  the  lord  of  the  land,  spake 
roughly  with  us,  and  took  us  for  spies  of  the  coun- 
try. And  we  said  unto  him,  We  are  true  men  ; 
we  are  no  spies ;  we  be  twelve  brethren,  sons  of 
our  father ;  one  is  not,  and  the  youngest  is  this 
day  with  our  father  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  And 
the  man,  the  lord  of  the  land,  said  unto  us,  Hereby 
shall  I  know  that  ye  are  true  men  ;  leave  one  of 
your  brethren  with  me,  and  take  grain  for  the 
famine  of  your  houses,  and  go  your  way,  and  bring 
your  youngest  brother  unto  me ;  then  shall  I  know 


2S6  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

that  ye  are  no  spies,  but  that  ye  are  true  men  ;  so 
will  I  deliver  you  your  brother,  and  ye  shall  traffick 
in  the  land. 

And  it  came  to  pass  as  they  emptied  their  sacks, 
that,  behold,  every  man's  bundle  of  money  was  in 
his  sack  ;  and  when  they  and  their  father  saw  their 
bundles  of  money,  they  were  afraid.  And  Jacob 
their  father  said  unto  them,  Me  have  ye  bereaved 
of  my  children  ;  Joseph  is  not,  and  Simeon  is  not, 
and  ye  will  take  Benjamin  away  ;  all  these  things 
are  against  me.  And  Reuben  spake  unto  his  father, 
saying,  Slay  my  two  sons,  if  I  bring  him  not  to 
thee ;  deliver  him  into  my  hand,  and  I  will  bring 
him  to  thee  again.  And  he  said,  My  son  shall  not 
go  down  with  you  ;  for  his  brother  is  dead,  and  he 
only  is  left ;  if  mischief  befall  him  by  the  way  in 
which  ye  go,  then  shall  ye  bring  down  my  gray 
hairs  with  sorrow  to  Sheol. 


XXXVI 

THE  SECOND  JOURNEY  TO  EGYPT 

In  the  account  of  the  second  journey  of  the 
ten  brothers — Benjamin  taking  the  place  of 
Simeon  —  into  Egypt,  it  is  Judah  that  appears 
in  the  character  of  surety  for  the  safety  of  the 
youngest,  and  later  offers  himself  as  a  bondman 
to  Joseph  "instead  of  the  lad,"  while  Reuben 
is  not  referred  to  by  name.  We  notice  also  that 
the  father  is  designated  only  by  the  personal 
name  of  Israel,  and  Joseph  speaks  of  himself  as 
"your  brother  whom  ye  sold  into  Egypt."  This 
indicates  the  same  source  as  the  material  in  Chap- 
ter xxxvii.  which  represented  Judah  as  saving 
Joseph  from  death  by  the  device  of  selling  him 
to  a  passing  caravan  of  Ishmaelites  from  whom 
he  was  bought  by  Pharaoh's  captain  of  the  guard 
and  keeper  of  the  prison,  and  not  from  that 
which  made  Reuben  the  rescuer  by  the  device 
of  casting  the  lad  into  a  dry  "  pit "  from  which 
he  was  "stolen  away"  by  Midianite  merchantmen, 
and  in  which  Reuben  also  appeared  as  the  chief 
spokesman  of  the  brothers  in  the  sequel. 

287 


288  THE    MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

We  have  noticed  also  that  in  the  narrative  of 
the  first  visit  to  Egypt,  in  which  Reuben  is  the 
leading  character,  it  is  said  that  only  one  sack 
was  opened  at  the  "  lodging  place  "  on  the  return, 
and  the  money  was  found  in  the  others  after 
the  brothers  reached  home.  But  here  they  are 
represented  as  telling  Joseph's  steward  that  when 
they  came  to  the  lodging  place  they  opened  their 
sacks,  "  and  every  man's  money  was  in  the  mouth 
of  his  sack."  There  are,  indeed,  traces  of  blend- 
ing with  this  story  some  elements  from  the  other. 

First,  the  brothers  are  described  as  appearing 
without  ceremony  before  Joseph,  who  saw  Ben- 
jamin and  gave  orders  to  the  steward  to  bring 
them  into  the  house  and  make  ready  for  dinner, 
which  was  done,  and  thereupon,  in  their  alarm, 
they  explained  about  the  money.  But  this  is 
followed  by  a  different  description  of  their  being 
brought  by  a  "man"  to  Joseph's  house,  where 
they  were  to  wait  for  his  appearance,  having 
"  heard  that  they  should  eat  bread  there."  When 
Joseph  presented  himself,  they  prostrated  them- 
selves instead  of  standing  before  him,  and  he 
graciously  inquired  after  their  father  and  "  lifted 
up  his  eyes  and  saw  Benjamin."  The  result  of  the 
banquet  which  followed  is  more  strongly  stated  in 
the  original  than  in  our  familiar  translation. 


THE   SECOND   JOURNEY   TO   EGYPT  289 

The  account  of  sending  the  brothers  away 
after  this  surprising  treatment,  and  bringing  them 
back  by  the  device  of  the  apparently  stolen  divin- 
ing cup,  is  of  the  simple  fairy-tale  order ;  but  in 
the  pathetic  pleading  of  Judah  before  Joseph  in 
behalf  of  Benjamin  there  is  something  strangely 
expressive  of  the  relation  of  the  tribes  at  the 
time  when  the  story  must  have  originated.  The 
main  ethnic  purpose  is  kept  in  view,  of  account- 
ing for  the  migration  of  the  Israelites  into  Egypt, 
where  their  bondage  had  long  been  a  matter  of 
dim  tradition,  and  of  representing  the  ancestors 
of  the  Northern  tribes  as  having  gone  down  first 
and  acquired  a  degree  of  favor  and  power  that 
made  them  the  saviours  of  the  rest.  But  the 
story  of  Joseph's  superior  position,  his  gracious- 
ness  to  the  brethren  who  came  to  him  humbly 
for  relief  in  time  of  distress,  and  his  peculiar 
affection  for  Benjamin,  tells  in  mythic  language 
of  a  time  when  the  Northern  Kingdom  was  strong 
after  Jeroboam's  secession,  and  that  of  the  South 
was  humiliated ;  when  it  was  a  question  of  de- 
taching Benjamin  from  Judah,  and  joining  it  to 
Ephraim,  and  possibly  of  subjugating  Judah  it- 
self, and  when  the  magnanimity  of  the  North- 
ern realm,  which  had  the  favor  and  support  of 
Egypt,  saved  the  Southern  tribes  from  extinction. 
u 


2Q0 


THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 


The  passage  near  the  end  of  the  following  ex- 
tract, which  is  put  in  brackets,  describing  Joseph's 
disclosure  of  himself  to  his  brothers,  is  taken 
from  the  other  version  of  the  story  than  that 
mainly  drawn  upon,  evidently  for  the  sake  of  the 
statement  of  divine  purpose  which  it  contains. 

[XLIII-XLV    16] 

And  the  famine  was  sore  in  the  land.  And  it 
came  to  pass,  when  they  had  eaten  up  the  grain 
which  they  had  brought  out  of  Egypt,  their  father 
said  unto  them,  Go  again,  buy  us  a  little  food. 
And  Judah  spake  unto  him,  saying,  The  man  did 
solemnly  protest  unto  us,  saying,  Ye  shall  not  see 
my  face,  except  your  brother  be  with  you.  If  thou 
wilt  send  our  brother  with  us,  we  will  go  down  and 
buy  thee  food  ;  but  if  thou  wilt  not  send  him,  we 
will  not  go  down,  for  the  man  said  unto  us,  Ye 
shall  not  see  my  face  except  your  brother  be  with 
you. 

And  Israel  said,  Wherefore  dealt  ye  so  ill  with 
me,  as  to  tell  the  man  whether  ye  had  yet  a  brother? 
And  they  said,  The  man  asked  straitly  concerning 
ourselves,  and  concerning  our  kindred,  saying,  Is 
your  father  yet  alive?  have  ye  another  brother?  and 
we  told  him  according  to  the  tenor  of  these  words. 
Could  we  in  any  wise  know  that  he  would  say,  Bring 
your  brother  down? 

And  Judah  said  unto  Israel  his  father,  Send  the 
lad  with  me,  and  we  will  arise  and  go  ;  that  we  may 


THE  SECOND  JOURNEY  TO  EGYPT     29 1 

live,  and  not  die,  both  we,  and  thou,  and  also  our 
little  ones.  I  will  be  surety  for  him  ;  of  my  hand 
shalt  thou  require  him ;  if  I  bring  him  not  unto 
thee,  and  set  him  before  thee,  then  let  me  bear  the 
blame  for  ever ;  for  except  we  had  lingered,  surely 
we  had  now  returned  a  second  time. 

And  their  father  Israel  said  unto  them,  If  it  be  so 
now,  do  this ;  take  of  the  choice  fruits  of  the  land 
in  your  vessels,  and  carry  down  the  man  a  present, 
a  little  balm,  and  a  little  honey,  spicery  and  myrrh, 
nuts,  and  almonds ;  and  take  double  money  in  your 
hand ;  and  the  money  that  was  returned  in  the 
mouth  of  your  sacks  carry  again  in  your  hand  ;  per- 
adventure  it  was  an  oversight ;  take  also  your 
brother,  and  arise,  go  again  unto  the  man ;  and 
God  Almighty  (El  Shaddai)  give  you  mercy  before 
the  man,  that  he  may  release  unto  you  your  other 
brother  and  Benjamin.  And  if  I  be  bereaved  of  my 
children,  I  am  bereaved. 

And  the  men  took  that  present,  and  they  took 
double  money  in  their  hand,  and  Benjamin ;  and 
rose  up,  and  went  down  to  Egypt,  and  stood  before 
Joseph.  And  when  Joseph  saw  Benjamin  with 
them,  he  said  to  the  steward  of  his  house,  Bring  the 
men  into  the  house,  and  slay,  and  make  ready ;  for 
the  men  shall  dine  with  me  at  noon.  And  the  man 
did  as  Joseph  bade ;  and  the  man  brought  the  men 
into  Joseph's  house.  And  the  men  were  afraid, 
because  they  were  brought  into  Joseph's  house ; 
and  they  said,  Because  of  the  money  that  was 
returned    in   our   sacks   at   the    first    time   are    we 


2Q2 


THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

brought  in  ;  that  he  may  seek  occasion  against  us, 
and  fall  upon  us,  and  take  us  for  bondmen,  and  our 
asses. 

And  they  came  near  to  the  steward  of  Joseph's 
house,  and  they  spake  unto  him  at  the  door  of  the 
house,  and  said,  Oh  my  lord,  we  came  indeed  down 
at  the  first  time  to  buy  food  ;  and  it  came  to  pass, 
when  we  came  to  the  lodging  place,  that  we  opened 
our  sacks,  and,  behold,  every  man's  money  was  in 
the  mouth  of  his  sack,  our  money  in  full  weight, 
and  we  have  brought  it  again  in  our  hand.  And 
other  money  have  we  brought  down  in  our  hand  to 
buy  food  ;  we  know  not  who  put  our  money  in  our 
sacks.  And  he  said,  Peace  be  to  you,  fear  not ; 
your  God,  and  the  God  of  your  father,  hath  given 
you  treasure  in  your  sacks ;  I  had  your  money. 
And  he  brought  Simeon  out  unto  them. 

And  the  man  brought  the  men  into  Joseph's 
house,  and  gave  them  water,  and  they  washed  their 
feet;  and  he  gave  their  asses  provender.  And  they 
made  ready  the  present  against  Joseph  came  at 
noon,  for  they  heard  that  they  should  eat  bread 
there.  And  when  Joseph  came  home,  they  brought 
him  the  present  which  was  in  their  hand  into  the 
house,  and  bowed  down  themselves  to  him  to  the 
earth.  And  he  asked  them  of  their  welfare,  and 
said,  Is  your  father  well,  the  old  man  of  whom  ye 
spake?  Is  he  yet  alive?  And  they  said,  Thy  ser- 
vant our  father  is  well,  he  is  yet  alive.  And  they 
bowed  the  head,  and  made  obeisance. 


THE   SECOND   JOURNEY   TO   EGYPT  293 

And  he  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  saw  Benjamin  his 
brother,  his  mother's  son,  and  said,  Is  this  your 
youngest  brother,  of  whom  ye  spake  unto  me? 
And  he  said,  God  be  gracious  unto  thee,  my  son. 
And  Joseph  made  haste  ;  for  his  bowels  did  yearn 
upon  his  brother,  and  he  sought  where  to  weep  ; 
and  he  entered  into  his  chamber,  and  wept  there. 
And  he  washed  his  face,  and  came  out ;  and  he 
refrained  himself,  and  said,  Set  on  bread. 

And  they  set  on  for  him  by  himself,  and  for  them 
by  themselves,  and  for  the  Egyptians,  which  did  eat 
with  him,  by  themselves,  because  the  Egyptians 
might  not  eat  bread  with  the  Hebrews ;  for  that  is 
an  abomination  unto  the  Egyptians.  And  they  sat 
before  him,  the  firstborn  according  to  his  birthright, 
and  the  youngest  according  to  his  youth ;  and  the 
men  marvelled  one  with  another.  And  he  took  and 
sent  messes  unto  them  from  before  him ;  but  Ben- 
jamin's mess  was  five  times  so  much  as  any  of 
theirs.  And  they  drank,  and  were  drunken  with 
him. 

And  he  commanded  the  steward  of  his  house, 
saying,  Fill  the  men's  sacks  with  food,  as  much  as 
they  can  carry,  and  put  every  man's  money  in  his 
sack's  mouth.  And  put  my  cup,  the  silver  cup,  in 
the  sack's  mouth  of  the  youngest,  and  his  grain 
money.  And  he  did  according  to  the  word  that 
Joseph  had  spoken.  As  soon  as  the  morning  was 
light,  the  men  were  sent  away,  they  and  their  asses. 

When    they    were    gone    out    of    the    city,    and 


2Q4  THE   MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

were  not  yet  far  off,  Joseph  said  unto  his  steward, 
Up,  follow  after  the  men ;  and  when  thou  dost 
overtake  them,  say  unto  them,  Wherefore  have  ye 
rewarded  evil  for  good?  Is  not  this  it  in  which  my 
lord  drinketh,  and  whereby  he  indeed  divineth?  ye 
have  done  evil  in  so  doing.  And  he  overtook 
them,  and  he  spake  unto  them  these  words.  And 
they  said  unto  him,  Wherefore  speaketh  my  lord 
such  words  as  these?  God  forbid  that  thy  servants 
should  do  such  a  thing.  Behold,  the  money,  which 
we  found  in  our  sacks'  mouths,  we  brought  again 
unto  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Canaan ;  how  then 
should  we  steal  out  of  thy  lord's  house  silver  or 
gold  ?  With  whomsoever  of  thy  servants  it  be 
found,  let  him  die,  and  we  also  will  be  my  lord's 
bondmen. 

And  he  said,  Now  also  let  it  be  according  unto 
your  words  ;  he  with  whom  it  is  found  shall  be  my 
bondman,  and  ye  shall  be  blameless.  Then  they 
hasted,  and  took  down  every  man  his  sack  to  the 
ground,  and  opened  every  man  his  sack.  And  he 
searched,  and  began  at  the  eldest,  and  left  at  the 
youngest;  and  the  cup  was  found  in  Benjamin's 
sack.  Then  they  rent  their  clothes,  and  laded 
every  man  his  ass,  and  returned   to  the  city. 

And  Judah  and  his  brethren  came  to  Joseph's 
house,  and  he  was  yet  there  ;  and  they  fell  before 
him  on  the  ground.  And  Joseph  said  unto  them, 
What  deed  is  this  that  ye  have  done?  know  ye  not 
that  such  a  man  as  I  can  indeed  divine?  And 
Judah  said,  What  shall  we  say  unto  my  lord?  what 


THE   SECOND   JOURNEY  TO   EGYPT  295 

shall  we  speak?  or  how  shall  we  clear  ourselves? 
God  hath  found  out  the  iniquity  of  thy  servants. 
Behold,  we  are  my  lord's  bondmen,  both  we,  and 
he  also  in  whose  hand  the  cup  is  found.  And  he 
said,  God  forbid  that  I  should  do  so  ;  the  man  in 
whose  hand  the  cup  is  found,  he  shall  be  my  bond- 
man ;  but  as  for  you,  get  you  up  in  peace  unto  your 
father. 

Then  Judah  came  near  unto  him,  and  said,  Oh 
my  lord,  let  thy  servant,  I  pray  thee,  speak  a  word 
in  my  lord's  ears,  and  let  not  thine  anger  burn 
against  thy  servant,  for  thou  art  even  as  Pharaoh. 
My  lord  asked  his  servants,  saying,  Have  ye  a 
father,  or  a  brother?  And  we  said  unto  my  lord, 
We  have  a  father,  an  old  man,  and  a  child  of  his 
old  age,  a  little  one  ;  and  his  brother  is  dead,  and 
he  alone  is  left  of  his  mother,  and  his  father  loveth 
him.  And  thou  saidst  unto  thy  servants,  Bring  him 
down  unto  me,  that  I  may  set  mine  eyes  upon  him. 
And  we  said  unto  my  lord,  The  lad  cannot  leave  his 
father;  for  if  he  should  leave  his  father,  his  father 
would  die.  And  thou  saidst  unto  thy  servants,  Ex- 
cept your  youngest  brother  come  down  with  you,  ye 
shall  see  my  face  no  more.  And  it  came  to  pass 
when  we  came  up  unto  thy  servant  my  father,  we 
told  him  the  words  of  my  lord. 

And  our  father  said,  Go  again,  buy  us  a  little  food. 
And  we  said,  \Ye  cannot  go  down ;  if  our  youngest 
brother  be  with  us,  then  will  we  go  down,  for  we 
may  not  see  the  man's  face,  except  our  youngest 
brother  be  with  us.     And  thy  servant  my  father  said 


296  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

unto  us,  Ye  know  that  my  wife  bare  me  two  sons ; 
and  the  one  went  out  from  me,  and  I  said,  Surely 
he  is  torn  in  pieces  ;  and  I  have  not  seen  him  since  ; 
and  if  ye  take  this  one  also  from  me,  and  mischief 
befall  him,  ye  shall  bring  down  my  gray  hairs  with 
sorrow  to  Sheol.  Now  therefore  when  I  come  to 
thy  servant  my  father,  and  the  lad  be  not  with  us ; 
seeing  that  his  life  is  bound  up  in  the  lad's  life,  it 
shall  come  to  pass,  when  he  seeth  that  the  lad  is  not 
with  us,  that  he  will  die  ;  and  thy  servants  shall  bring 
down  the  gray  hairs  of  thy  servant  our  father  with 
sorrow  to  Sheol.  For  thy  servant  became  surety  for 
the  lad  unto  my  father,  saying,  If  I  bring  him  not 
unto  thee,  then  shall  1  bear  the  blame  to  my  father 
forever.  Now  therefore,  let  thy  servant,  I  pray  thee, 
abide  instead  of  the  lad  a  bondman  to  my  lord  ; 
and  let  the  lad  go  up  with  his  brethren.  For  how 
shall  I  go  up  to  my  father,  and  the  lad  be  not  with 
me?  lest  I  see  the  evil  that  shall  come  on  my 
father. 

Then  Joseph  could  not  refrain  himself  before 
all  them  that  stood  by  him  ;  and  he  cried,  Cause 
every  man  to  go  out  from  me.  And  there  stood  no 
man  with  him,  while  Joseph  made  himself  known 
unto  his  brethren.  And  he  wept  aloud  ;  and  the 
Egyptians  heard,  and  the  house  of  Pharaoh 
heard. 

[And  Joseph  said  unto  his  brethren,  I  am 
Joseph;  doth  my  father  yet  live?  And  his  breth- 
ren could  not  answer  him  ;  for  they  were  troubled 
at  his  presence.     And  Joseph  said  unto  his  brethren, 


THE   SECOND  JOURNEY  TO   EGYPT  297 

Come  near  to  me,  I  pray  you.  And  they  came 
near.  And  he  said,  I  am  Joseph  your  brother, 
whom  ye  sold  into  Egypt.  And  now  be  not  grieved 
nor  angry  with  yourselves,  that  ye  sold  me  hither, 
for  God  did  send  me  before  you  to  preserve  life. 
For  these  two  years  hath  the  famine  been  in  the 
land  ;  and  there  are  yet  five  years  in  which  there 
shall  be  neither  plowing  nor  harvest.  And  God 
sent  me  before  you  to  preserve  you  a  remnant  in 
the  earth,  and  to  save  you  alive  by  a  great  deliver- 
ance. So  now  it  was  not  you  that  sent  me  hither, 
but  God ;  and  he  hath  made  me  a  father  to  Pha- 
raoh, and  lord  of  all  his  house,  and  ruler  over  all 
the  land  of  Egypt. 

Haste  ye,  and  go  up  to  my  father,  and  say  unto 
him,  Thus  saith  thy  son  Joseph,  God  hath  made  me 
lord  of  all  Egypt ;  come  down  unto  me,  tarry  not, 
and  thou  shalt  dwell  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  and 
thou  shalt  be  near  unto  me,  thou,  and  thy  children, 
and  thy  children's  children,  and  thy  flocks,  and  thy 
herds,  and  all  that  thou  hast ;  and  there  will  I  nour- 
ish thee,  for  there  are  yet  five  years  of  famine, 
lest  thou  come  to  poverty,  thou,  and  thy  household, 
and  all  that  thou  hast.  And,  behold,  your  eyes 
see,  and  the  eyes  of  my  brother  Benjamin,  that  it  is 
my  mouth  that  speaketh  unto  you.  And  ye  shall  tell 
my  father  of  all  my  glory  in  Egypt,  and  of  all  that 
ye  have  seen ;  and  ye  shall  haste  and  bring  down 
my  father  hither.] 

And  he  fell  upon  his  brother  Benjamin's  neck, 
and   wept ;     and    Benjamin  wept  upon   his    neck. 


298  THE  MYTHS  OF  ISRAEL 

And  he  kissed  all  his  brethren,  and  wept  upon 
them  ;  and  after  that  his  brethren  talked  with  him. 
And  the  fame  thereof  was  heard  in  Pharaoh's  house, 
saying,  Joseph's  brethren  are  come  ;  and  it  pleased 
Pharaoh  well,  and  his  servants. 


XXXVII 

Jacob's  migration 

Again  the  charming  simplicity  of  the  fairy 
tale,  with  Joseph  in  the  character  of  the  kindly 
godmother  and  Pharaoh  as  the  benignant  dis- 
penser of  endless  favors !  The  mighty  potentate 
of  Egypt,  who  has  raised  a  Hebrew  slave  to  the 
highest  place  of  power  and  confidence  in  his 
realm,  personally  sends  for  the  aged  patriarch 
in  that  indefinite  home,  "  the  land  of  Canaan," 
to  come  down  with  all  his  family  and  share  the 
good  things  of  Egypt,  leaving  all  possessions 
behind  as  of  no  account.  Wagons  are  sent  and 
gifts  are  bestowed  by  the  lordly  brother,  special 
favors  being  lavished  upon  little  Benjamin. 

We  lose  sight  of  the  awful  famine  with  five  years 
still  to  run,  in  visions  of  "  the  fat  of  the  land," 
and  we  do  not  mind  that  twenty  asses,  however 
richly  laden,  were  an  inadequate  cavalcade  for 
the  supplies  on  so  long  a  journey  and  return, 
through  a  country  which  the  later  Israelites 
found  it  so  hard  to  traverse.  We  do  not  think 
how  the  wagons  are  to  get  through  that  perilous 

299 


300  THE   MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

wilderness,  parched  and  burnt  with  two  years 
of  drought  already. 

It  is  all  as  easy  as  an  Arabian  tale,  and  only 
a  question  of  breaking  the  joyful  news  to  the 
incredulous  old  father  and  bringing  him  in  all 
haste  to  the  land  of  plenty  and  of  Joseph's  glory. 
He  bethinks  him  on  his  departure  of  Isaac's 
God,  whose  altar  is  at  Beersheba,  and  there  he 
gets  a  promise  in  the  visions  of  the  night  that 
the  divinity  of  his  father  will  accompany  him  to 
the  strange  land  and  bring  up  his  offspring  again 
in  the  time  to  come  to  be  a  great  nation.  It  is 
evidently  the  God  of  Isaac  only,  and  in  the  long 
interval  Canaan  will  be  left  in  sole  possession 
of  its  own  deities,  and  not  till  Moses  appears 
as  a  deliverer  will  he  concern  himself  even  with 
the  fate  of  Israel  in  Egypt.  Is  it  in  the  wilder- 
ness about  Mount  Sinai  that  he  is  to  lurk  in  the 
mean  time,  waiting  the  growth  of  the  promised 
nation  ?  However  it  may  be,  Jacob  is  got  into 
Egypt  and  "  all  his  family  with  him."  The 
account  of  the  migration  is  of  mixed  material, 
that  from  the  secondary  source  being  put  in 
brackets  in  the  text  below. 

It  is  almost  with  a  shock  that  we  pass  from 
this  exquisite  picture  to  the  prosaic  genealogy  of 
the    children    of    Israel   which    the    compiler    saw 


JACOB'S   MIGRATION  301 

fit  to  introduce  here,  doubtless  from  the  Elohist 
document  of  which  we  have  seemed  to  lose  sight 
for  some  time.  The  shock  does  not  come  alone 
from  the  abrupt  transition.  We  have  seen  Reuben 
offering  the  sacrifice  of  his  "two  sons,"  if  Ben- 
jamin should  not  be  brought  back  in  safety;  but 
now  we  find  him  with  four  sons,  whose  names 
have  a  strange  suggestion  of  antique  geography. 
Simeon  and  Levi  have  appeared  once  before  as 
mature  men  in  the  bloody  episode  of  Shechem, 
and  now  they  have  their  sons  who  seem  also  to 
be  geographical  expressions.  We  are  reminded 
again  of  Judah's  family  history  by  the  names 
of  his  offspring,  while  the  mention  of  Leah's 
other  sons  and  those  of  the  handmaids  carries 
us  back  to  the  Jacob  legend,  so  different  from 
that  which  has  lately  charmed  us. 

But  here  is  Benjamin,  the  tender  lad,  the  "child 
of  his  old  age,  a  little  one,"  appearing  as  the  father 
of  ten  children.  Perhaps  we  need  not  be  surprised, 
for  was  he  not  born  on  the  journey  from  Paddan- 
aram,  when  Rachel  died,  and  when  his  father 
was  some  sixty  years  old,  now  according  to  his 
own  statement  to  Pharaoh  about  seventy  years 
ago  ?  The  defective  arithmetic,  which  appears 
also  in  the  enumeration  of  the  family,  does  not 
matter.     What  has  arithmetic  or  other  hard  fact 


302  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

to  do  with  the  story  of  Joseph  and  his  little 
brother,  which  has  delighted  the  world  for  cen- 
turies ?  No  more  than  with  the  nightly  advent- 
ures of  Haroun  al  Raschid  in  the  "  golden 
prime." 

[XLV  17-XLVI  27] 

And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  Say  unto  thy 
brethren,  This  do  ye  :  lade  your  beasts,  and  go, 
get  you  unto  the  land  of  Canaan ;  and  take  your 
father  and  your  households,  and  come  unto  me ; 
and  I  will  give  you  the  good  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  ye  shall  eat  the  fat  of  the  land.  Now  thou 
art  commanded,  this  do  ye  ;  take  you  wagons  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt  for  your  little  ones,  and  for 
your  wives,  and  bring  your  father,  and  come.  Also 
regard  not  your  stuff;  for  the  good  of  all  the  land 
of  Egypt  is  yours.  And  the  sons  of  Israel  did  so ; 
and  Joseph  gave  them  wagons,  according  to  the 
commandment  of  Pharaoh,  and  gave  them  provision 
for  the  way. 

[To  all  of  them  he  gave  each  man  changes  of 
raiment ;  but  to  Benjamin  he  gave  three  hundred 
pieces  of  silver,  and  five  changes  of  raiment.  And 
to  his  father  he  sent  after  this  manner ;  ten  asses 
laden  with  the  good  things  of  Egypt,  and  ten  she- 
asses  laden  with  grain  and  bread  and  victual  for  his 
father  by  the  way.  So  he  sent  his  brethren  away, 
and  they  departed ;  and  he  said  unto  them,  See 
that  ye  fall  not  out  by  the  way.     And  they  went  up 


JACOB'S   MIGRATION  303 

out  of  Egypt,  and  came  into  the  land  of  Canaan 
unto  Jacob  their  father.] 

And  they  told  him,  saying,  Joseph  is  yet  alive, 
and  he  is  ruler  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt.  And 
his  heart  fainted,  for  he  believed  them  not.  And 
they  told  him  all  the  words  of  Joseph,  which  he 
had  said  unto  them ;  and  when  he  saw  the  wagons 
which  Joseph  had  sent  to  carry  him,  the  spirit  of 
Jacob  their  father  revived ;  and  Israel  said,  It  is 
enough,  Joseph  my  son  is  yet  alive ;  I  will  go  and 
see  him  before  I  die. 

And  Israel  took  his  journey  with  all  that  he  had, 
and  came  to  Beersheba,  and  offered  sacrifices  unto 
the  God  of  his  father  Isaac.  And  God  spake  unto 
Israel  in  the  visions  of  the  night,  and  said,  Jacob, 
Jacob.  And  he  said,  Here  am  I.  And  he  said, 
I  am  God,  the  God  of  thy  father;  fear  not  to  go 
down  into  Egypt,  for  I  will  there  make  of  thee  a 
great  nation ;  I  will  go  down  with  thee  into  Egypt, 
and  I  will  also  surely  bring  thee  up  again ;  and 
Joseph  shall  put  his  hand  upon  thine  eyes.  And 
Jacob  rose  up  from  Beersheba ;  and  the  sons  of 
Israel  carried  Jacob  their  father,  and  their  little 
ones,  and  their  wives,  in  the  wagons  which  Pharaoh 
had  sent  to  carry  him. 

[And  they  took  their  cattle,  and  their  goods, 
which  they  had  gotten  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  and 
came  into  Egypt,  Jacob,  and  all  his  family  with 
him ;  his  sons,  and  his  sons'  sons  with  him,  his 
daughters,  and  his  sons'  daughters,  and  all  his  fam- 
ily brought  he  with  him  into  Egypt.] 


304 


THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

And  these  are  the  names  of  the  children  of 
Israel,  which  came  into  Egypt,  Jacob  and  his  sons  : 
Reuben,  Jacob's  firstborn.  And  the  sons  of  Reu- 
ben ;  Hanoch,  and  Pallu,  and  Hezron,  and  Carmi. 
And  the  sons  of  Simeon  ;  Jemuel,  and  Jamin,  and 
Ohad,  and  Jachin,  and  Zohar,  and  Shaul  the  son  of 
a  Canaanitish  woman.  And  the  sons  of  Levi ; 
Gershon,  Kohath,  and  Merari.  And  the  sons  of 
Judah  ;  Er,  and  Onan,  and  Shelah,  and  Perez,  and 
Zerah ;  [but  Er  and  Onan  died  in  the  land  of 
Canaan.]  And  the  sons  of  Perez  were  Hezron  and 
Hamul.  And  the  sons  of  Issachar ;  Tola,  and 
Puvah,  and  lob,  and  Shimron.  And  the  sons  of 
Zebulun ;  Sered,  and  Elon,  and  Jahleel.  These  are 
the  sons  of  Leah,  which  she  bare  unto  Jacob  in 
Paddan-aram,  with  his  daughter  Dinah ;  all  the 
souls  of  his  sons  and  his  daughters  were  thirty  and 
three. 

And  the  sons  of  Gad ;  Ziphion,  and  Haggi, 
Shuni,  and  Ezbon,  Eri,  and  Arodi,  and  Areli. 
And  the  sons  of  Asher ;  Imnah,  and  Ishvah,  and 
Ishvi,  and  Beriah,  and  Serah  their  sister :  and  the 
sons  of  Beriah;  Heber,  and  Malchiel.  These  are 
the  sons  of  Zilpah,  which  Laban  gave  to  Leah  his 
daughter,  and  these  she  bare  unto  Jacob,  even  six- 
teen souls. 

The  sons  of  Rachel  Jacob's  wife  ;  Joseph  and 
Benjamin.  And  unto  Joseph  in  the  land  of  Egypt 
were  born  Manasseh  and  Ephraim,  which  Asenath 
the  daughter  of  Poti-phera  priest  of  On  bare  unto 
him.      And    the    sons    of    Benjamin ;     Bela,    and 


JACOB'S   MIGRATION  305 

Becher,  and  Ashbel,  Gera,  and  Naaman,  Ehi,  and 
Rosh,  Muppim,  and  Huppim,  and  Ard.  These 
are  the  sons  of  Rachel,  which  were  born  to  Jacob  ; 
all  the  souls  were  fourteen. 

And  the  sons  of  Dan ;  Hushim.  And  the  sons 
of  Naphtali ;  Jahzeel,  and  Guni,  and  Jezer,  and 
Shillem.  These  are  the  sons  of  Bilhah,  which 
Laban  gave  unto  Rachel  his  daughter,  and  these  she 
bare  unto  Jacob ;  all  the  souls  were  seven. 

All  the  souls  that  came  with  Jacob  into  Egypt, 
which  came  out  of  his  loins,  besides  Jacob's  sons' 
wives,  all  the  souls  were  threescore  and  six  ;  and 
the  sons  of  Joseph,  which  were  born  to  him  in 
Egypt,  were  two  souls  :  all  the  souls  of  the  house  of 
Jacob,  which  came  into  Egypt,  were  threescore  and 
ten. 


XXXVIII 


SETTLED    IN    EGYPT 


Nothing  but  the  fixed  impressions  which  have 
been  produced  by  traditional  views  of  this  com- 
position, would  excuse  a  constant  reference  to  the 
evidence  which  it  contains  within  itself  of  its  ut- 
terly unhistorical  character  and  purpose.  But  for 
those  impressions  the  evidence  would  be  obvious 
and  readily  accepted.  Now  it  seems  to  be  neces- 
sary to  direct  close  attention  to  it. 

The  subjoined  passage  contains  that  evidence 
not  only  in  the  innate  improbability  of  its  inci- 
dents, and  their  inconsistency  with  other  parts  of 
the  general  narrative,  but  in  the  process  which  we 
have  tried  to  make  familiar  to  the  reader's  mind  of 
a  blending  of  diverse  elements  in  the  story.  When 
Joseph  disclosed  his  identity  to  his  brothers,  we 
are  told  that  he  bade  them  make  haste  and  bring 
their  father  down  to  the  land  of  Goshen,  with 
their  families  and  their  flocks  and  herds,  that  they 
might  be  nourished  through  the  remaining  five 
years  of  famine,  for  he  was  "  lord  of  all  Egypt." 

In  what  immediately  followed  Pharaoh  appeared 

306 


SETTLED    IN   EGYPT  307 

as  telling  Joseph  what  to  say  to  his  brethren  and 
as  offering  to  their  father  and  their  households 
"the  good  of  the  land  of  Egypt."  They  were  to 
leave  all  behind  and  come  to  Pharaoh  to  "  eat  the 
fat  of  the  land."  There  is  no  suggestion  of  the 
famine  or  of  dwelling  apart  in  Goshen,  but  at 
the  close  of  the  story  of  the  migration  we  are 
told  that  they  "  took  their  cattle  and  their  goods." 
The  possession  of  these  during  the  period  of  dire 
stress,  and  taking  them  through  that  desolate 
wilderness  scorched  for  two  years  by  drought, 
would  seem  strange  in  any  relation  of  presumed 
facts. 

We  have  had  a  complete  account  of  this  migra- 
tion, including  a  visit  to  the  altar  at  Beersheba, 
the  arrival  in  Egypt,  and  an  enumeration  of  the 
"  souls  of  the  house  of  Jacob  "  that  settled  there. 
But  here  we  are  suddenly  set  back  upon  an  ac- 
count which  represents  Jacob  as  sending  Judah  on 
ahead  to  show  the  way  to  Goshen,  and  Joseph  as 
coming  up  to  meet  him  in  his  chariot.  The  latter 
is  then  to  tell  Pharaoh  of  their  coming  with  their 
flocks  and  herds,  and  they  are  to  ask  the  privilege 
of  dwelling  in  Goshen,  because  they  were  shep- 
herds, and  every  shepherd  was  an  "  abomination 
unto  the  Egyptians."  Of  this  state  of  feeling  in 
Egypt  in  ancient  times  there  really  seems  to  be  no 


308  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

proof,  and  its  own  people  were  largely  agricultu- 
ral, if  not  pastoral. 

With  the  usual  magic  of  such  tales,  Joseph  has 
then  only  to  "go  in"  and  tell  Pharaoh  about  it, 
taking  five  of  his  brothers  with  him,  and  we  hardly 
stop  to  wonder  at  the  plea  that  they  had  come 
down  for  pasture  for  their  flocks,  because  the 
famine  was  "sore  in  the  land  of  Canaan."  We 
had  supposed  it  to  be  equally  sore  in  all  the  land 
of  Egypt,  and  that  there  were  to  be  five  years 
more  during  which  flocks  and  herds  would  be  a 
burden  and  the  people  must  be  fed  from  govern- 
ment supplies.  It  seems  strange,  too,  if  Goshen 
was  "the  best  of  the  land  of  Egypt"  and  capable 
of  sustaining  flocks  and  herds,  that  it  was  not 
occupied  by  the  Egyptians  who  had  been  suffering 
from  famine  for  two  years. 

The  paragraph  which  represents  Joseph  as 
bringing  his  father  before  Pharaoh  is  evidently 
from  another  source.  It  is  in  a  different  tone  and 
manner,  and  apparently  belongs  to  the  narrative 
which  brought  Jacob  so  promptly  into  Egypt,  and 
not  merely  to  a  meeting  place  on  the  border  in 
the  land  of  Goshen.  It  is  Joseph  again  who  has 
the  disposal  of  affairs,  and  the  name  given  to  the 
land  placed  in  possession  of  his  family  is  Rameses, 
and    not    Goshen.      It    doubtless    designated    the 


SETTLED   IN   EGYPT  309 

same  region,  which  lay  between  the  Nile  Valley 
and  Arabia  Petraea,  and  was  the  actual  place  of 
sojourn  of  the  Semitic  Nomads  who  were  driven 
over  the  border  by  dearth  of  pasturage  in  a  time 
of  prolonged  drought. 

[XLVI  28-XLVII  12] 

And  he  sent  Judah  before  him  unto  Joseph,  to 
shew  the  way  before  him  into  Goshen ;  and  they 
came  into  the  land  of  Goshen.  And  Joseph  made 
ready  his  chariot,  and  went  up  to  meet  Israel  his 
father,  to  Goshen  ;  and  he  presented  himself  unto 
him,  and  fell  on  his  neck,  and  wept  on  his  neck  a 
good  while.  And  Israel  said  unto  Joseph,  Now  let 
me  die,  since  I  have  seen  thy  face,  that  thou  art  yet 
alive. 

And  Joseph  said  unto  his  brethren,  and  unto  his 
father's  house,  I  will  go  up,  and  tell  Pharaoh,  and 
will  say  unto  him,  My  brethren,  and  my  father's 
house,  which  were  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  are  come 
unto  me  ;  and  the  men  are  shepherds,  for  they  have 
been  keepers  of  cattle ;  and  they  have  brought 
their  flocks,  and  their  herds,  and  all  that  they  have. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  Pharaoh  shall  call 
you,  and  shall  say,  What  is  your  occupation?  that 
ye  shall  say,  Thy  servants  have  been  keepers  of 
cattle  from  our  youth  even  until  now,  both  we,  and 
our  fathers,  that  ye  may  dwell  in  the  land  of 
Goshen  ;  for  every  shepherd  is  an  abomination  unto 
the  Egyptians. 


310  nil'-    MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

Then  Joseph  went  in  and  told  Pharaoh,  and  said, 
My  father  and  my  brethren,  and  their  flocks,  and 
their  herds,  and  all  that  they  have,  are  come  out  of 
the  land  of  Canaan ;  and,  behold,  they  are  in  the 
land  of  Goshen.  And  from  among  his  brethren  he 
took  five  men,  and  presented  them  unto  Pharaoh. 
And  Pharaoh  said  unto  his  brethren,  What  is  your 
occupation  ?  And  they  said  unto  Pharaoh,  Thy  ser- 
vants are  shepherds,  both  we,  and  our  fathers.  And 
they  said  unto  Pharaoh,  To  sojourn  in  the  land  are 
we  come  ;  for  there  is  no  pasture  for  thy  servants' 
flocks  ;  for  the  famine  is  sore  in  the  land  of  Canaan ; 
now  therefore,  we  pray  thee,  let  thy  servants  dwell 
in  the  land  of  Goshen.  And  Pharaoh  spake  unto 
Joseph,  saying,  Thy  father  and  thy  brethren  are 
come  unto  thee  ;  the  land  of  Egypt  is  before  thee  ; 
in  the  best  of  the  land  make  thy  father  and  thy 
brethren  to  dwell ;  in  the  land  of  Goshen  let  them 
dwell ;  and  if  thou  knovvest  any  able  men  among 
them,  then  make  them  rulers  over  my  cattle. 

[And  Joseph  brought  in  Jacob  his  father,  and  set 
him  before  Pharaoh,  and  Jacob  blessed  Pharaoh. 
And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Jacob,  How  many  are  the 
days  of  the  years  of  thy  life?  And  Jacob  said  unto 
Pharaoh,  The  days  of  the  years  of  my  pilgrimage 
are  an  hundred  and  thirty  years  :  few  and  evil  have 
been  the  days  of  the  years  of  my  life,  and  they  have 
not  attained  unto  the  days  of  the  years  of  the  life 
of  my  fathers  in  the  days  of  their  pilgrimage.  And 
Jacob  blessed  Pharaoh,  and  went  out  from  the 
presence  of  Pharaoh.     And  Joseph  placed  his  father 


SETTLED   IN   EGYPT  3  1 1 

and  his  brethren,  and  gave  them  a  possession  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,  {in  the  best  of  the  land,  in  the  land  of 
Rameses,  as  Pharaoh  had  commanded.')  And  Joseph 
nourished  his  father,  and  his  brethren,  and  all  his 
father's  household,  with  bread,  according  to  their 
families.] 


XXXIX 

STRANGE    RESULTS    OF    FAMINE 

It  is  believed  to  be  a  historical  fact  that  in  the 
days  of  the  great  Rameses  the  ownership  of  land 
in  Egypt  was  chiefly,  if  not  solely,  in  the  hands 
of  the  king  and  his  officers  and  soldiers,  and  of 
the  priests,  and  that  the  mass  of  the  people  were 
reduced  to  a  state  of  virtual  serfdom  and  depend- 
ence on  the  government.  The  payment  of  a 
"fifth"  for  the  use  of  the  land  may  have  been  a 
"statute." 

We  have  here  an  account  of  something  like 
this  state  of  things  being  brought  about  as  the 
result  of  the  great  famine  under  the  administra- 
tion of  Joseph.  It  seems  to  be  part  of  the  scheme 
for  magnifying  the  greatness  of  Joseph,  and  is 
characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  manner  of  account- 
ing for  conditions  known  or  believed  to  exist  in 
past  times  or  distant  lands.  It  is  needless  to 
point  out  that  such  a  gathering  up  of  everything 
by  one  man,  as  a  matter  of  policy  and  of  eco- 
nomic management  during  a  seven  years'  period 
of    absolute    dearth,    does    not    come    within    the 

312 


STRANGE   RESULTS   OF   FAMINE  313 

range  of  credibility  ;  but  the  account  is  not  of  a 
kind  which  would  elsewhere  lay  any  claim  to 
credibility.  It  seems  to  be  mainly  the  work  of 
the  compiler,  and  not  an  integral,  part  of  his 
material. 

[XLVII  13-26] 

And  there  was  no  bread  in  all  the  land  ;  for  the 
famine  was  very  sore,  so  that  the  land  of  Egypt  and 
the  land  of  Canaan  fainted  by  reason  of  the  famine. 
And  Joseph  gathered  up  all  the  money  that  was 
found  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  in  the  land  of  Ca- 
naan, for  the  grain  which  they  bought ;  and  Joseph 
brought  the  money  into  Pharaoh's  house.  And 
when  the  money  was  all  spent  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  all  the  Egyptians  came 
unto  Joseph,  and  said,  Give  us  bread :  for  why 
should  we  die  in  thy  presence?  for  our  money 
faileth.  And  Joseph  said,  Give  your  cattle  ;  and  I 
will  give  you  for  your  cattle,  if  money  fail.  And 
they  brought  their  cattle  unto  Joseph ;  and  Joseph 
gave  them  bread  in  exchange  for  the  horses,  and 
for  the  flocks,  and  for  the  herds,  and  for  the  asses ; 
and  he  fed  them  with  bread  in  exchange  for  all  their 
cattle  for  that  year. 

And  when  that  year  was  ended,  they  came  unto 
him  the  second  year,  and  said  unto  him,  We  will 
not  hide  from  my  lord,  how  that  our  money  is  all 
spent,  and  the  herds  of  cattle  are  my  lord's ;  there 
is  nought   left   in   the    sight   of  my  lord,   but   our 


314  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

bodies,  and  our  hands ;  wherefore  should  we  die 
before  thine  eyes,  both  we  and  our  land?  buy  us 
and  our  land  for  bread,  and  we  and  our  land  will 
be  servants  unto  Pharaoh  ;  and  give  us  seed,  that 
we  may  live,  and  not  the,  and  that  the  land  be  not 
desolate.  So  Joseph  bought  all  the  land  of  Egypt 
for  Pharaoh ;  for  the  Egyptians  sold  every  man  his 
field,  because  the  famine  was  sore  upon  them  ;  and 
the  land  became  Pharaoh's. 

And  as  for  the  people,  he  reduced  them  to  serf- 
dom from  one  end  of  the  border  of  Egypt  even  to 
the  other  end  thereof.  Only  the  land  of  the  priests 
bought  he  not,  for  the  priests  had  a  portion  from 
Pharaoh,  and  did  eat  their  portion  which  Pharaoh 
gave  them ;  wherefore  they  sold  not  their  land. 
Then  Joseph  said  unto  the  people,  Behold,  I  have 
bought  you  this  day  and  your  land  for  Pharaoh  ;  lo, 
here  is  seed  for  you,  and  ye  shall  sow  the  land. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  at  the  ingatherings,  that 
ye  shall  give  a  fifth  unto  Pharaoh,  and  four  parts 
shall  be  your  own,  for  seed  of  the  field,  and  for 
your  food,  and  for  them  of  your  households,  and  for 
food  for  your  little  ones.  And  they  said,  Thou  hast 
saved  our  lives ;  let  us  find  grace  in  the  sight  of 
my  lord,  and  we  will  be  Pharaoh's  servants.  And 
Joseph  made  it  a  statute  concerning  the  land  of 
Egypt  unto  this  day,  that  Pharaoh  should  have  the 
fifth  ;  only  the  land  of  the  priests  alone  became  not 
Pharaoh's. 


XL 

ADOPTION    OF    THE    TRIBES    OF    JOSEPH 

After  the  foregoing  passage  the  compiler  intro- 
duced a  concise  statement  of  the  settlement  of 
"  Israel  "  in  the  land  of  Egypt  where  they  "  multi- 
plied exceedingly,"  and  followed  it  with  a  frag- 
ment from  the  Elohist  document  giving  the  age 
of  "Jacob"  at  the  time  of  his  death.  Reverting 
to  the  material  which  used  the  name  Israel,  he 
gave  an  account  of  the  last  days  of  the  patriarch, 
when  he  summoned  Joseph  and  made  him  swear 
that  he  would  bury  him  in  the  burial  place  of  his 
fathers  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  This  was  the  last 
act  of  consecration  of  the  possession  of  that  land 
by  his  posterity,  whose  writers  were  careful  to 
represent  that  the  bones  of  their  ancestors  rested 
in  its  soil,  in  ground  solemnly  acquired  and  de- 
voted to  that  purpose.  The  form  of  oath  euphe- 
mistically expressed  in  the  text,  like  that  exacted  of 
his  servant  by  Abraham  with  reference  to  the  mar- 
riage of  Isaac,  appears  to  have  been  a  relic  of  the 
time  when  a  peculiar  sacredness  was  attached  to 

315 


3l6  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

the  natural  power  and  agencies  of  reproduc- 
tion. 

Apparently  this  account  of  the  oath  of  Joseph 
originally  ended  with  the  death  of  "  Israel,"  but 
the  compiler  had  another  episode  of  his  last  days 
to  introduce,  —  that  of  adopting  Ephraim  and  Ma- 
nasseh  into  the  family  of  tribes,  by  the  process  of 
blessing  the  sons  of  Joseph.  He  began  this  with 
an  extract  from  the  Elohist  (in  brackets  below), 
which  represents  Joseph  as  being  informed  of  the 
sickness  of  his  father  and  as  taking  his  two  sons 
to  the  bedside.  Only  these,  born  before  Jacob 
went  into  Egypt,  are  adopted,  and  it  is  implied 
that  Joseph  had  other  offspring  which  was  not  of 
Israel.  The  account  is  a  recognition  of  supposed 
facts  as  to  the  relation  of  the  tribes.  From  the 
Judean  point  of  view,  Ephraim  and  Manasseh, 
powerful  as  they  had  become,  were  regarded  as 
comparatively  alien  in  origin  and  as  "added"  or 
adopted  by  Israel.  The  abrupt  reminder  of  the 
premature  death  of  Rachel  seems  to  be  intended 
as  an  explanation  of  the  adoption  of  the  sons  of 
Joseph  on  the  same  footing  with  the  oldest  of  his 
brothers,  on  the  ground  that  the  chance  of  other 
direct  progeny  in  that  line  had  been  cut  off,  and 
Joseph  himself  had  passed  out  of  the  family. 

The    actual    account  of    the   blessing  after  this 


ADOPTION   OF  THE  TRIBES   OF  JOSEPH        317 

preliminary  statement  is  from  the  other,  or  Jeho- 
vist,  source.  There  is  in  it  a  certain  analogy  with 
Isaac's  blessing  of  his  two  sons,  in  the  old  man's 
blindness,  and  in  the  preference  given  to  the 
younger  over  the  older.  It  lacks  the  element  of 
deception  and  the  actual  exclusion  of  the  older 
branch  from  the  heritage,  but  it  embodies  the 
ethnic  facts  as  to  the  relation  of  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh  to  each  other  and  to  the  other  tribes,  as 
the  story  of  Isaac's  blessing  embodied  those  of  the 
relations  of  Israel  and  Edom.  The  elements  of 
the  myth  are  of  a  more  kindly  sort  as  belonging 
to  the  internal  affairs  of  Israel.  The  descrip- 
tion gives  the  impression  that  "the  lads,"  Joseph's 
sons,  are  young  children,  but  they  have  both  been 
represented  as  born  sometime  before  the  famine, 
which  had  lasted  two  years  when  Jacob  came 
into  Egypt,  now  seventeen  years  ago.  This  is 
much  less  incongruous  than  the  sudden  appear- 
ance of  the  "lad"  Benjamin  as  the  father  of  ten 
sons. 

But,  as  we  have  said,  this  is  a  representation  of 
ethnic  facts  and  relations  as  they  were  understood 
in  the  writer's  time,  and  not  a  family  history. 
The  Ephraimites  already  possessed  that  "portion," 
or  mountain  slope  (Shechem),  given  to  Joseph 
above  his  brethren  ;  but  that  Jacob  had  taken  it 


3 18  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

from  the  Amoritc  with  his  sword  and  his  bow  was 
merely  a  symbolical  statement  of  its  conquest  by 
the  Israelites.  We  have  had  no  account  of  war- 
like acquisitions  by  Jacob,  and  in  the  legend  he 
has  displayed  none  of  the  qualities  of  a  conqueror. 
It  was  Israel  as  a  people  that  had  made  the  con- 
quest and  allotted  the  portion  to  the  Josephite 
tribes,  and  Joseph  was  never  brought  again  to  the 
land  of  his  fathers  except  in  the  same  ethnic 
sense.  We  are  to  look  at  these  statements,  as 
their  writer  did,  from  the  point  of  view  of  accom- 
plished events. 

[XLVII  27-XLVIII] 

And  Israel  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the 
land  of  Goshen ;  and  they  gat  them  possessions 
therein,  and  were  fruitful,  and  multiplied  exceed- 
ingly. [And  Jacob  lived  in  the  land  of  Kgypt  sev- 
enteen years ;  so  the  days  of  Jacob,  the  years  of 
his  life,  were  an  hundred  forty  and  seven  years.] 
And  the  time  drew  near  that  Israel  must  die;  and 
he  called  his  son  Joseph,  and  said  unto  him,  If 
now  I  have  found  grace  in  thy  sight,  put,  I  pray 
thee,  thy  hand  under  my  thigh,  and  deal  kindly  and 
truly  with  me.  Bury  me  not,  I  pray  thee,  in  Egypt ; 
but  when  I  sleep  with  my  fathers,  thou  shalt  carry 
me  out  of  Egypt,  and  bury  me  in  their  buryingplace. 
And  he  said,  I  will  do  as  thou  hast  said.  And  he 
said,  Swear  unto  me  :  and  lie  sware  unto  him.  And 
Israel  bowed  himself  upon  the  bed's  head. 


ADOPTION   OF  THE  TRIBES   OF  JOSEPH        319 

[And  it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,  that  one 
said  to  Joseph,  Behold,  thy  father  is  sick ;  and  he 
took  with  him  his  two  sons,  Manasseh  and  Ephraim. 
And    one   told   Jacob,   and    said,   Behold,   thy   son 
Joseph  cometh  unto  thee  :  and  Israel  strengthened 
himself,    and  sat  upon    the   bed.     And  Jacob   said 
unto  Joseph,  God  Almighty  {El  Shaddai)  appeared 
unto  me  at  Luz  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  blessed 
me,  and  said  unto  me,   Behold,  I  will  make  thee 
fruitful,  and  multiply  thee,  and  I  will  make  of  thee 
a  union  of  peoples ;  and  will  give  this  land  to  thy 
posterity  after   thee   for  an   everlasting   possession. 
And  now  thy  two  sons,  which  were  born  unto  thee 
in  the  land  of  Egypt  before  I  came  unto  thee  into 
Egypt,  are  mine ;  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  even  as 
Reuben  and  Simeon,  shall  be  mine.     And  thy  issue, 
which  thou   begettest   after   them,  shall  be  thine ; 
they  shall  be  called  after  the  name  of  their  brethren 
in  their  inheritance.     And  as  for  me,  when  I  came 
from   Paddan,  Rachel  died  by  me  in  the   land  of 
Canaan  in  the  way,  when  there  was  still  some  way 
to  come   unto   Ephrath  ;  and  I  buried  her  there  in 
the  way  to  Ephrath  (the  same  is  Beth-lehem).] 

And  Israel  beheld  Joseph's  sons,  and  said,  Who 
are  these  ?  And  Joseph  said  unto  his  father,  They 
are  my  sons,  whom  God  hath  given  me  here.  And 
he  said,  Bring  them,  I  pray  thee,  unto  me,  and  I 
will  bless  them.  Now  the  eyes  of  Israel  were  dim 
for  age,  so  that  he  could  not  see.  And  he  brought 
them  near  unto  him ;  and  he  kissed  them,  and  em- 


i  THE   MYTHS  OF   ISRAEL 

braced  them.  And  Israel  said  unto  Joseph,  I  had 
not  thought  to  see  thy  face  ;  and,  lo,  God  hath  let 
me  see  thy  children  also.  And  Joseph  brought 
them  out  from  between  his  knees ;  and  he  bowed 
himself  with  his  face  to  the  earth. 

And  Joseph  took  them  both,  Ephraim  in  his  right 
hand  toward  Israel's  left  hand,  and  Manasseh  in 
his  left  hand  toward  Israel's  right  hand,  and  brought 
them  near  unto  him.  And  Israel  stretched  out  his 
right  hand,  and  laid  it  upon  Ephraim's  head,  who 
was  the  younger,  and  his  left  hand  upon  Manasseh's 
head,  guiding  his  hands  wittingly  ;  for  Manasseh  was 
the  firstborn.  And  he  blessed  Joseph,  and  said, 
The  God  before  whom  my  fathers  Abraham  and 
Isaac  did  walk,  the  God  which  hath  fed  me  all  my 
life  long  unto  this  day,  the  angel  which  hath  re- 
deemed me  from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads ;  and  let 
my  name  be  named  on  them,  and  the  name  of 
my  fathers  Abraham  and  Isaac  ;  and  let  them  grow 
into  a  multitude  in  the  midst  of  the  earth. 

And  when  Joseph  saw  that  his  father  laid  his 
right  hand  upon  the  head  of  Ephraim,  it  displeased 
him  ;  and  he  held  up  his  father's  hand,  to  remove  it 
from  Ephraim's  head  unto  Manasseh's  head.  And 
Joseph  said  unto  his  father,  Not  so,  my  father,  for 
this  is  the  firstborn  ;  put  thy  right  hand  upon  his 
head.  And  his  father  refused,  and  said,  I  know  it, 
my  son,  I  know  it ;  he  also  shall  become  a  people, 
and  he  also  shall  be  great;  howbeit  his  younger 
brother  shall  be  greater  than  he,  and  his  progeny 
shall    become    a    multitude    of    nations.       And    he 


ADOPTION   OF  THE  TRIBES   OF  JOSEPH        32 1 

blessed  them  that  day,  saying,  In  thee  shall  Israel 
bless,  saying,  God  make  thee  as  Ephraim  and  as 
Manasseh  ;  and  he  set  Ephraim  before  Manasseh. 

And  Israel  said  unto  Joseph,  Behold,  I  die,  but 
God  shall  be  with  you,  and  bring  you  again  unto  the 
land  of  your  fathers.  Moreover  I  have  given  to 
thee  one  mountain  slope  (shechem)  above  thy 
brethren,  which  I  took  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
Amorite  with  my  sword  and  with  my  bow. 


XLI 

POETICAL    DESCRIPTION    OF    THE    TRIBES 

Nearly  the  whole  of  the  forty-ninth  chapter 
of  Genesis  is  taken  up  with  a  poetical  resume 
of  the  characteristics  of  the  tribes  of  Israel  at 
a  certain  period  of  their  history.  It  is  of  ex- 
treme interest  as  betraying  even  more  clearly 
than  the  preceding  narratives  the  fact  that  the 
names  with  which  we  have  been  dealing  repre- 
sent in  their  origin  symbolical  personifications 
of  the  tribes.  It  is  introduced  with  the  state- 
ment, that  it  is  what  Jacob  told  his  sons  would 
befall  them  "in  the  latter  days,"  and  the  com- 
piler followed  it  with  the  declaration  that  it  re- 
lated to  the  tribes  of  Israel,  and  was  what  their 
father  "spake  unto  them  and  blessed  them."  It 
is  generally  spoken  of  as  a  "blessing"  or  bene- 
diction, but  it  has  little  of  that  quality  except 
for  Joseph.  It  is  partly  in  the  form  of  predic- 
tion, but  more  of  description  or  characterization. 

The  origin  of  this  poetical  production  is  a 
matter  of  conjecture,  or  of  inference.  The  com- 
piler found  it  among  his  varied  material,  with  or 

322 


POETICAL   DESCRIPTION   OF  TRIBES  323 

without  the  introductory  statement,  and  likelihood 
favors  the  supposition  that  it  was  one  of  many- 
ancient  chants,  in  which  tales,  traditions,  and  de- 
scriptions were  embodied  at  a  time  when  they 
were  transmitted  orally,  and  constant  repetition 
in  rhythmical  forms  served  to  keep  them  in 
memory  until  they  finally  came  to  be  written 
down.  When  its  substance  had  been  drawn  into 
prose  narratives,  after  writing  came  into  use, 
most  of  the  primitive  ballad  literature  was  lost. 

The  time  reflected  in  this  poem  appears  to  be 
after  the  complete  establishment  of  the  kingdom, 
which  included  all  the  tribes,  and  before  its  divi- 
sion into  two  rival  and  often  hostile  powers,  but 
its  general  tone  is  strongly  Ephraimite,  while  rec- 
ognizing the  predominance  at  the  time  of  Judah. 

Reuben  was  regarded  as  the  oldest  of  the 
tribes,  which  had  lost  the  pre-eminence  it  once 
held.  The  symbolism  seems  to  imply  that  this 
was  due  to  presumption  in  usurping  undue  au- 
thority over  the  rest,  for  we  know  from  the  story 
of  David  and  Absalom,  and  from  other  authority, 
that  taking  possession  of  the  father's  harem  (or 
defiling  his  bed)  was  the  supreme  evidence  of 
seizing  his  prerogatives.  An  attempt  of  the 
Reubenites  to  establish  themselves  as  the  ruling 
power    may    explain    the    enigmatical    reference 


324  THE   MYTHS   OF  ISRAEL 

here  to  the  "  father's  bed,"  and  in  the  previous 
story,  to  one  of  his  "concubines."  At  all  events, 
Reuben  lost  its  primacy  after  the  conquest  and 
practically  disappeared  as  one  of  the  tribes  to 
the  east  of  the  Jordan. 

The  allusion  to  the  violence  of  Simeon  and 
Levi,  which  we  have  also  had  before  in  the 
story  of  Shechem,  is  still  more  enigmatical,  for 
we  are  told  of  no  event  of  history  which  ex- 
plains it,  but  we  do  know  that  they  were  "  scat- 
tered "  in  Israel.  The  tribe  of  Simeon  had 
utterly  faded  out  on  the  southern  border  since 
the  conquest,  and  the  Levites  were  a  wandering 
class  without  territorial  possessions  of  their  own. 
There  is  no  trace  of  recognition  here  of  the 
character  which  they  finally  assumed  as  minis- 
ters of  the  national  worship. 

The  powerful  and  flourishing  state  of  Judah 
is  recognized,  and  it  evidently  held  the  sceptre 
of  power  over  Israel  at  the  time  pictured  in  the 
poem,  which  could  only  have  been  after  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Davidic  dynasty.  The  figure  of 
the  lion's  whelp  may  refer  to  the  conquests  over 
the  Philistines  and  other  enemies  in  the  days  of 
David,  and  the  references  to  wine  and  milk 
evidently  symbolize  material  prosperity.  What 
means    the    retention    of    the    ruler's    staff    until 


POETICAL   DESCRIPTION   OF   TRIBES  325 

Shiloh  come  ?  Is  it  an  ominous  intimation  that 
Ephraim,  whose  most  ancient  fane  was  at  or 
near  Shiloh,  harbored  the  expectation  of  obtain- 
ing the  supreme  sway  ?  Though  Shiloh  is  found 
only  as  a  proper  name  elsewhere,  some  critics 
have  been  disposed  to  regard  it  as  a  common 
noun  here,  meaning  peace,  and  implying  that 
Judah  was  to  exercise  kingly  power  only  until 
the  country  was  reduced  to  tranquillity,  when 
the  people  were  to  revert  to  the  primitive  free- 
dom for  which  they  always  yearned. 

Zebulun  is  characterized  only  by  reference  to 
its  situation  on  the  seaboard.  Issachar  was  an 
agricultural  and  pastoral  land  of  considerable  rich- 
ness, and  is  spoken  of  in  the  guise  of  a  laborer 
and  bearer  of  burdens.  The  name  "  Dan  "  means 
a  judge,  and  there  is  an  apparent  allusion  to  the 
time  when  a  small  settlement  on  the  Philistine 
border  got  the  better  of  a  powerful  enemy  for 
a  while,  and  furnished  one  of  the  most  famous 
"judges  of  Israel."  That  exploit  may  have  raised 
it  to  the  dignity  of  the  "tribe"  which  afterwards 
settled  in  the  North.  Gad  on  the  eastern  frontier 
was  exposed  to  marauding  attacks,  which  it  con- 
stantly repelled,  and  Asher  on  the  rich  western 
slope  furnished  dainties  to  the  markets  of  Phoe- 
nicia.    The  nimble  warriors  of  the  heights,  whence 


326  THE    MYTHS    OF    ISRAEL 

Deborah  summoned  Barak,  were  a  "  hind  let 
loose,"  who  gave  "  good  words,"  whether  liter- 
ally in  battle  songs  or  figuratively  in  giving  good 
account  of  themselves,  who  can  say  ?  But  it  is 
to  be  observed  of  these  six  names  of  tribes,  that 
nowhere  in  the  patriarchal  stories  do  the  two 
youngest  sons  of  Leah,  or  the  four  offspring  of 
handmaidens,  assume  any  personal  individuality. 
They  are  mere  names,  or  are  included  in  the 
general  designation  of  "  sons  of  Jacob  "  or 
"brethren  of  Joseph,"  without  separate  identity. 
As  tribes,  they  were  scarcely  more  than  "  geo- 
graphical expressions."  They  had  no  autonomy. 
Joseph  is  the  one  upon  whom  the  blessings  of 
a  dying  father  are  lavished,  with  promise  of  ex- 
pansion and  triumph.  This  stamps  the  poem  as 
an  Ephraimite  production  beyond  question,  and 
suggests  a  time  of  ambitious  hopes  in  the  Northern 
land.  But  poor  little  Benjamin  does  not  appear 
as  the  favorite  brother  of  Joseph  and  the  beloved 
child  of  his  father.  He  personifies  rather  the 
characteristics  of  that  violent  band  of  warriors 
that  made  a  new  Sodom  of  Gibeah  in  the  time 
of  the  Judges,  and  brought  upon  them  the  wrath 
of  the  other  tribes  by  the  outrage  upon  the  poor 
Levite  who  tarried  there  with  his  concubine  from 
Bethlehem-Judah. 


POETICAL   DESCRIPTION   OF  TRIBES  327 

A  later  and  less  poetical  picture  of  the  tribes 
is  found  in  the  so-called  blessing  of  Moses, 
delivered  when  he  was  about  to  die  in  sight  of 
the  promised  land,  which  is  contained  in  the 
thirty-third  chapter  of  Deuteronomy.  It  is  traced 
in  part  upon  the  lines  of  the  earlier  composition, 
but  breathes  a  kindlier  spirit.  Simeon  has  dis- 
appeared, but  there  is  an  appeal  that  Reuben 
may  live,  and  the  priestly  character  of  Levi 
is  recognized  while  the  violence  formerly  at- 
tributed to  him  is  forgotten.  The  power  of 
Judah  is  much  abated,  while  the  blessing  of 
Joseph  continues,  and  Benjamin  is  referred  to 
with  kindness.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  the 
two  poems,  as  presenting  a  view  of  the  tribes 
at  different  periods  after  their  union,  and  as 
throwing  light  upon  the  use  of  their  names  in 
the  ethnic  myths. 

[XLIX  1-28] 

And  Jacob  called  unto  his  sons,  and  said  :  Gather 
yourselves  together,  that  I  may  tell  you  that  which 
shall  befall  you  in  the  latter  days. 
Assemble  yourselves,  and  hear,  ye  sons  of  Jacob ; 
And  hearken  unto  Israel  your  father. 

Reuben,  thou  art  my  firstborn,  my  might,  and  the 
beginning  of  my  strength  ; 


328  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

The  pre-eminence  of  dignity,  and  the  pre-eminence 

of  power. 
Boiling   over   as   water,   thou  shalt    not    have   the 

pre-eminence, 
Because  thou  wentest  up  to  thy  father's  bed  ; 
Then  defiledst  thou  it :  he  went  up  to  my  couch. 

Simeon  and  Levi  are  brethren  ; 

Weapons  of  violence  are  their  compacts. 

My  soul  will  not  come  into  their  council ; 

Unto  their  assembly  my  glory  shall  not  be  united ; 

For  in  their  anger  they  slew  a  man, 

And  in  their  selfwill  they  houghed  an  ox. 

Cursed  be  their  anger,  for  it  was  fierce  ; 

And  their  wrath,  for  it  was  cruel : 

I  will  divide  them  in  Jacob, 

And  scatter  them  in  Israel. 

[Judah,  thee  shall  thy  brethren  praise ; 

Thy  hand  shall  be  on  the  neck  of  thine  enemies ; 

Thy  father's  sons  shall  bow  down  before  thee.1] 

Judah  is  a  lion's  whelp  ; 

From  the  prey,  my  son,  thou  art  returned. 

He  stooped  down,  he  couched  as  a  lion, 

And  as  a  lioness ;  who  shall  rouse  him  up? 

The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah, 

Nor  the  ruler's  staff  from  between  his  feet, 

Until  Shiloh  come  ; 

And  unto  him  shall  the  obedience  of  the  peoples  be. 

1  There  is  a  question  whether  these  three  lines  have  not  been 
displaced  from  the  reference  to  Joseph  with  a  substitution  of  names. 


POETICAL   DESCRIPTION   OF  TRIBES  329 

Binding  his  foal  unto  the  vine, 
And  his  ass's  colt  unto  the  choice  vine, 
He  hath  washed  his  garments  in  wine, 
And  his  vesture  in  the  blood  of  grapes ; 
His  eyes  shall  be  red  with  wine, 
And  his  teeth  white  with  milk. 

Zebulun  shall  dwell  at  the  haven  of  the  sea, 
And  he  shall  be  for  an  haven  of  ships ; 
And  his  border  shall  be  upon  Zidon. 

Issachar  is  a  strong  ass, 

Couching  down  between  the  sheepfolds  ; 

And  he  saw  a  resting  place  that  it  was  good, 

And  the  land  that  it  was  pleasant ; 

And  he  bowed  his  shoulder  to  bear, 

And  became  a  servant  under  taskwork. 

[Dan  shall  judge  his  people, 

As  one  of  the  tribes  of  Israel.] 

Dan  shall  be  a  serpent  in  the  way, 

An  adder  in  the  path, 

That  biteth  the  horse's  heels, 

So  that  his  rider  falleth  backward. 

[I  have  waited  for  thy  salvation,  O  Lord.] 

Gad,  a  troop  shall  press  upon  him  ; 
But  he  shall  press  upon  their  heel. 

Out  of  Asher  his  bread  shall  be  fat, 
And  he  shall  yield  royal  dainties. 

Naphtali  is  a  hind  let  loose  ; 
He  giveth  goodly  words. 


330  THE  MYTHS  OF  ISRAEL 

Joseph  is  a  fruitful  bough, 
A  fruitful  bough  by  a  fountain  ; 
His  branches  run  over  the  wall. 
The  archers  have  sorely  grieved  him, 
And  shot  at  him,  and  persecuted  him ; 
But  his  bow  abode  in  strength, 
And  the  arms  of  his  hands  were  made  strong, 
By  the  hands  of  the  Mighty  One  of  Jacob, 
(From  thence  is  the  shepherd,  the  rock  of  Israel,) 
Even  by  the  God  of  thy  father,  who  shall  help  thee, 
And  by  the  Almighty,  who  shall  bless  thee, 
With  blessings  of  heaven  above, 
Blessings  of  the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath, 
Blessings  of  the  breasts,  and  of  the  womb. 
The  blessings  of  thy  father 

Have  prevailed  above  the  blessings  of  my  progenitors 
Unto  the  utmost  bound  of  the  everlasting  hills. 
They  shall  be  on  the  head  of  Joseph, 
And  on  the  crown  of  the  head  of  him  that  was  sepa- 
rate from  his  brethren. 

Benjamin  is  a  wolf  that  ravineth  ; 

In  the  morning  he  shall  devour  the  prey, 

And  at  even  he  shall  divide  the  spoil. 

All  these  are  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel ;  and  this 
is  it  that  their  father  spake  unto  them  and  blessed 
them ;  every  one  according  to  his  blessing  he 
blessed  them. 


XLII 

THE    BURIAL    OF    JACOB 

The  beginning  and  end  of  the  following  pas- 
sage relating  to  the  burial  of  Jacob,  which  are 
put  in  brackets,  are  from  the  Elohist  document 
and  connect  with  each  other.  The  accounts  of 
the  purchase  of  the  cave  of  Machpelah  and  the 
burial  there  of  Sarah,  Abraham,  and  Isaac  in 
previous  chapters,  are  from  the  same  source,  as 
we  have  seen.  The  Jehovist  associated  Jacob 
mostly  with  Bethel  and  Shechem,  as  he  asso- 
ciated Isaac  only  with  Beersheba.  In  the  ac- 
count of  Jacob's  first  going  to  Shechem  after  his 
return  from  Paddan-aram,  it  is  said  that  he 
bought  a  parcel  of  ground  there  of  the  children 
of  Hamor,  and  in  the  Book  of  Joshua  it  is  stated 
that  the  bones  of  Joseph,  "which  the  children 
of  Israel  brought  up  out  of  Egypt,"  they  buried 
in  that  parcel  of  ground.  In  the  account  of 
Jacob's  burial  which  follows  the  Elohist  fragment 
below,  the  reference  in  the  original  material  is 
probably   to   this    place.      This    account   is    com- 

33i 


332  THE   MYTHS   OF    ISRAEL 

plcte  in  itself  and  seems  to  have  connected  origi- 
nally with  what  is  now  the  end  of  chapter  xlvii., 
where  Jacob  is  said  to  have  summoned  Joseph 
to  his  death  bed  and  made  him  swear  to  carry 
him  out  of  Egypt  and  bury  him  in  the  "  burying- 
place  "  of  his  fathers. 

Joseph  is  now  represented  as  saying  that  his 
father  had  made  him  swear  to  bury  him  in  a 
grave  which  he  had  himself  bought  in  the  land  of 
Canaan.  It  seems  a  little  strange  to  find  Joseph 
making  his  application  to  Pharaoh  through  inter- 
mediaries of  the  king's  household.  The  embalm- 
ing and  the  mourning  appear  to  be  according  to 
known  Egyptian  custom,  but  the  funeral  cortege, 
with  "  horses  and  chariots,"  and  the  dignitaries 
of  Egypt,  passing  through  all  that  wilderness  of 
Pharan,  is  a  sharp  reminder  of  the  unreality 
of  the  whole  description  regarded  as  a  matter 
of  personal  history.  There  is  also  a  reminder  of 
the  fallibility  of  the  process  of  deriving  events 
from  names,  which  was  so  common  with  the 
myth-makers  of  Israel.  There  was  a  plain,  not 
far  from  Jericho  east  of  the  Jordan,  which  was 
called  Abel-Mizraim,  for  some  unknown  reason, 
but  that  meant  "  field  of  the  Egyptians "  and 
not  "  mourning  of  the  Egyptians."  The  mis- 
taken derivation  which  formed  the  suggestion  of 


THE   BURIAL   OF   JACOB  333 

the  whole  incident  came  from  confounding  Ebel, 
"mourning,"  with  Abel,  "field."  In  the  old  He- 
brew writing  no  vowels  were  used,  and  it  is  likely 
that  the  distinction  of  vowel  sounds  was  not  always 
kept  clear  in  oral  speech.  Of  the  perversion  of 
the  names  of  places  on  account  of  similarity  of 
sound  with  something  else  there  are  many  modern 
instances. 

[XLIX  29-L  13] 

[And  he  charged  them,  and  said  unto  them,  I  am 
to  be  gathered  unto  my  people  ;  bury  me  with  my 
fathers  in  the  cave  that  is  in  the  field  of  Ephron  the 
Hittite,  in  the  cave  that  is  in  the  field  of  Machpe- 
lah,  which  is  before  Mamre,  in  the  land  of  Canaan, 
which  Abraham  bought  with  the  field  from  Ephron 
the  Hittite  for  a  possession  of  a  buryingplace. 
There  they  buried  Abraham  and  Sarah  his  wife ; 
there  they  buried  Isaac  and  Rebekah  his  wife ;  and 
there  I  buried  Leah  :  the  field  and  the  cave  that  is 
therein,  which  was  purchased  from  the  children  of 
Heth.  And  when  Jacob  made  an  end  of  charging 
his  sons,  he  gathered  up  his  feet  into  the  bed,  and 
yielded  up  the  ghost,  and  was  gathered  unto  his 
people.] 

And  Joseph  fell  upon  his  father's  face,  and  wept 
upon  him,  and  kissed  him.  And  Joseph  com- 
manded his  servants  the  physicians  to  embalm  his 
father ;  and  the  physicians  embalmed  Israel.  And 
forty  days  were  fulfilled  for  him ;  for  so  are  fulfilled 


334  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

the  days  of  embalming  ;  and  the  Egyptians  wept  for 
him  threescore  and  ten  days. 

And  when  the  days  of  weeping  for  him  were  past, 
Joseph  spake  unto  the  house  of  Pharaoh,  saying,  If 
now  I  have  found  grace  in  your  eyes,  speak,  I  pray 
you,  in  the  ears  of  Pharaoh,  saying,  My  father  made 
me  swear,  saying,  Lo,  I  die  :  in  my  grave  which  I 
bought  for  me  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  there  shalt 
thou  bury  me.  Now  therefore  let  me  go  up,  I 
pray  thee,  and  bury  my  father,  and  I  will  come 
again. 

And  Pharaoh  said,  Go  up,  and  bury  thy  father, 
according  as  he  made  thee  swear.  And  Joseph 
went  up  to  bury  his  father ;  and  with  him  went  up 
all  the  servants  of  Pharaoh,  the  elders  of  his  house, 
and  all  the  elders  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  all  the 
house  of  Joseph,  and  his  brethren,  and  his  father's 
house  ;  only  their  little  ones,  and  their  flocks,  and 
their  herds,  they  left  in  the  land  of  Goshen. 

And  there  went  up  with  him  both  chariots  and 
horsemen,  and  it  was  a  very  great  company.  And 
they  came  to  the  threshing-floor  of  Atad,  which  is 
beyond  Jordan,  and  there  they  lamented  with  a 
very  great  and  sore  lamentation  ;  and  he  made  a 
mourning  for  his  father  seven  days.  And  when  the 
inhabitants  of  the  land,  the  Canaanites,  saw  the 
mourning  in  the  floor  of  Atad,  they  said,  This  is  a 
grievous  mourning  to  the  Egyptians  :  wherefore  the 
name  of  it  was  called  Abel-mizraim,  which  is  beyond 
Jordan. 

[And  his  sons  did  unto  him  according  as  he  com- 


THE   BURIAL   OF  JACOB  335 

manded  them;  for  his  sons  carried  him  unto  the 
land  of  Canaan,  and  buried  him  in  the  cave  of  the 
field  of  Machpelah,  which  Abraham  bought  with 
the  field,  for  a  possession  of  a  buryingplace,  of 
Ephron  the  Hittite,  before  Mamre.] 


XLIII 

THE    END    OF    JOSEPH 

With  the  completion  of  the  story  of  Joseph 
the  purpose  of  the  patriarchal  myths  is  fulfilled. 
The  origin  of  the  tribes,  their  characteristics  and 
their  relation  to  each  other,  have  been  accounted 
for;  the  sacred  places  of  the  nation  have  been 
hallowed  with  memories  of  the  people's  earliest 
ancestors ;  the  possession  of  the  land  has  been 
attributed  to  divine  promise  many  times  repeated, 
to  early  occupation,  and  the  consecration  of  an- 
cestral graves  ;  obedience  to  Jehovah's  commands 
and  devotion  to  his  worship  have  been  made  a 
solemn  obligation  through  the  compacts  of  the 
venerable  forefathers  of  the  Hebrew  race;  and 
finally  the  sojourn  in  Egypt,  leading  to  the  bond- 
age and  deliverance  of  which  there  had  been 
traditions  for  centuries,  has  been  explained  as 
the  result  of  divine  care  in  preserving  the  people 
in  a  time  of  terrible  and  protracted  famine. 

Through  the  series  of  stories  runs  the  exalta- 
tion of  the  offspring  of  Abraham  over  all  other 
peoples,   the    elevation    of    the    Israelite   branch 

336 


THE   END   OF   JOSEPH  337 

over  the  Ishmaelite  and  Edomite,  and  finally 
the  glorification  of  the  family  of  Joseph,  consti- 
tuting the  kingdom  of  the  North,  in  which  the 
main  substance  of  the  myths  in  their  original 
form  was  produced. 

Joseph's  mission  in  Egypt  being  fulfilled,  he 
is  represented  as  dying,  while  his  brothers  live 
on,  and  as  making  them  swear  to  carry  his 
bones  up  out  of  Egypt  when  the  time  of  their 
deliverance  should  come.  The  naive  passing 
from  the  phrase  "  his  brethren "  to  the  "  chil- 
dren of  Israel,"  leads  one  to  think  that  the 
writer  was  wholly  conscious  of  the  mythical 
quality  of  his  narrative,  and  had  no  notion  of 
its  being  received  as  ordinary  matter  of  fact. 
Indeed,  historical  fact  was  something  beyond  the 
recognition  or  the  conception  of  those  ancient 
scribes.  We  notice  one  of  the  constant  charac- 
teristics of  their  method  in  the  general  mention 
of  Ephraim's  "children"  and  of  Manasseh's  son 
by  name,  the  fact  being  that  the  powerful  tribe 
of  Ephraim  was  never  divided,  whereas  there 
was  a  branch  of  that  of  Manasseh  known  as 
Machirites,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Jordan. 

Another   characteristic   touch,    indicative    of    a 
primitive    moral    standard    in    matters   of    truth, 
appears  in  the  little  episode  of  the  reconciliation 
z 


338  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

after  the  father's  death,  in  which  the  brothers 
pretend  that  he  left  a  dying  injunction  to  Joseph 
to  forgive  their  transgression.  It  would  have 
been  easy  to  represent  the  patriarch  as  deliver- 
ing this  injunction  for  himself,  but  the  primitive 
writer  and  the  compiler  of  the  material  alike 
had  as  little  conception  of  literary  art  as  of  any 
necessity  of  giving  a  semblance  of  candor  to 
their  characters.  The  quality  was  not  valued  by 
their  race  and  time. 

[L  14-26] 

And  Joseph  returned  into  Egypt,  he,  and  his 
brethren,  and  all  that  went  up  with  him  to  bury  his 
father,  after  he  had  buried  his  father.  And  when 
Joseph's  brethren  saw  that  their  father  was  dead, 
they  said,  It  may  be  that  Joseph  will  hate  us,  and 
will  fully  requite  us  all  the  evil  which  we  did  unto 
him. 

And  they  sent  a  message  unto  Joseph,  saying,  Thy 
father  did  command  before  he  died,  saying,  So  shall 
ye  say  unto  Joseph,  Forgive,  I  pray  thee  now, 
the  transgression  of  thy  brethren,  and  their  sin,  for 
that  they  did  unto  thee  evil ;  and  now,  we  pray 
thee,  forgive  the  transgression  of  the  servants  of  the 
God  of  thy  father. 

And  Joseph  wept  when  they  spake  unto  him. 
And  his  brethren  also  went  and  fell  down  before  his 
face ;    and   they  said,  Behold,  we  be  thy  servants. 


THE   END   OF  JOSEPH  339 

And  Joseph  said  unto  them,  Fear  not ;  for  am  I  in 
the  place  of  God  ?  And  as  for  you.  ye  meant  evil 
against  me ;  but  God  meant  it  for  good,  to  bring  to 
pass,  as  it  is  this  day,  to  save  much  people  alive. 
Now  therefore  fear  ye  not ;  I  will  nourish  you,  and 
your  little  ones.  And  he  comforted  them,  and  spake 
kindly  unto  them. 

[And  Joseph  dwelt  in  Egypt,  he,  and  his  father's 
house  ;  and  Joseph  lived  an  hundred  and  ten  years.] 

And  Joseph  saw  Ephraim's  children  of  the  third 
generation ;  the  children  also  of  Machir  the  son  of 
Manasseh  were  born  upon  Joseph's  knees.  And 
Joseph  said  unto  his  brethren,  I  die ;  but  God  will 
surely  visit  you,  and  bring  you  up  out  of  this  land 
unto  the  land  which  he  sware  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac, 
and  to  Jacob.  And  Joseph  took  an  oath  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  saying,  God  will  surely  visit  you, 
and  ye  shall  carry  up  my  bones  from  hence.  So 
Joseph  died,  being  an  hundred  and  ten  years  old  ; 
and  they  embalmed  him,  and  he  was  put  in  a  coffin 
in  Egypt. 


THE   UNKNOWN    HOMER  OF  THE 
HEBREWS 


THE    UNKNOWN   HOMER  OF  THE 
HEBREWS1    • 

The  Hellenic  Homer  was  separated  from  the 
era  of  authentic  Greek  history  and  literature  by 
a  space  of  centuries  almost  blank  to  modern 
scholars.  Dispute  about  his  time  and  place,  his 
personality  and  work,  began  as  early  as  Herodo- 
tus, and  has  never  ended.  Whether  he  wrote  or 
recited,  and  whether  the  oldest  literary  dialect  of 
the  Greeks  had  graphic  form  in  his  day,  are  not 
wholly  settled  questions.  It  has  been  disputed 
whether  the  work  to  which  his  name  was  attached 
was  wholly  or  mainly  his.  The  two  great  epics 
have  been  resolved  by  some  into  a  series  of  dac- 
tylic tales  and  ballads,  chanted  and  developed  by 
more  than  one  minstrel,  and  finally  wrought  into  a 
continuous  web  of  pictured  lays. 

But  Homer  came  down  to  historic  time  in 
Greece  as  a  name,  and  it  stood  for  the  genius  who 
in  unrecorded  days  sang  deeds  of  heroes,  and 
wove  in  immortal  verse  the  "  tale  of  Troy  divine," 
and  the  adventurous  wanderings  of  the  returning 

1  Reprinted  from  The  New  World,  March,  1897. 
343 


34-1-  TIIE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

Odysseus.  It  came  to  stand  for  an  imposing  per- 
sonality, more  revered  for  the  mystery  out  of 
which  it  came,  more  distinct  to  the  imagination 
because  of  the  little  knowledge  men  had  of  its 
reality. 

Almost  contemporaneous  with  Homer,  the  epic 
genius  of  the  Hebrews  wrought  in  silence  and 
obscurity,  but  in  the  midst  of  a  stirring  time  in  the 
experience  of  that  ancient  people,  and  after  the 
opening  of  a  literary  period  which  closed  only 
with  their  history.  It  was  an  age  of  records  more 
continuous  and  complete,  more  authentic  and 
better  preserved,  than  any  other  of  equal  antiq- 
uity ;  and  yet,  if  the  name  of  the  writer  who  con- 
tributed the  grandest  part  to  the  Epic  of  Israel 
ever  emerged  into  the  light,  it  was  soon  lost.  His 
work  was  broken  in  pieces  and  wrought  with  other 
material  into  a  composite  fabric  of  perdurable 
strength,  and  his  personality  was  effaced.  For 
twenty-five  centuries  and  more,  the  Homer  of  the 
Hebrews  has  been  without  name  and  without 
personal  identity. 

It  is  one  of  the  triumphs  of  modern  Biblical 
research  to  have  rescued  the  Hebrew  genius  from 
the  oblivion  in  which  it  was  buried  by  ages  of 
superstition  and  imperfect  knowledge.  For  a  long 
time  the  ancient  incrustations  and  the   later  de- 


UNKNOWN   HOMER   OF  THE   HEBREWS        345 

posits  of  bones  and  dust  were  guarded  by  the 
fierce  glare  of  religous  faith  ;  but  of  late  the  pro- 
tecting blaze  has  subsided,  and,  in  the  sober  light 
of  knowledge  and  reason,  excavations  have  been 
made  which  reveal  the  true  character  of  the  hid- 
den treasure.  In  this  the  work  of  the  Hebrew 
Homer  is  easily  traced  by  its  golden  quality, 
broken  and  mixed  as  it  is  with  baser  metal. 

In  that  sacred  history  of  the  ancient  Hebrews 
into  whose  texture  the  "laws"  of  Judaism  were 
woven  after  the  restoration  of  the  temple  by  the 
returned  captives  of  Babylon,  critics  have  been 
able  to  distinguish  with  clearness  certain  superior 
material  which  has  come  to  be  known  as  the 
"Jehovist  document."  Curtailed  as  it  had  been, 
and  somewhat  mingled  with  other  substance,  it  is 
for  the  most  part  separable  from  the  rest.  It  was 
in  the  process  of  later  combination  that  this  pre- 
cious document  became  broken  and  deranged,  and 
imbedded  in  a  conglomerate  mass. 

Study  of  the  Hellenic  Homer's  work  in  relation 
to  events  and  authorship  is  much  more  a  matter 
of  conjecture  now  than  study  of  the  writings  of 
the  Hebrew  Homer,  whose  early  obscurity  and 
later  oblivion  were  due  to  circumstances  peculiar 
to  the  character  and  history  of  Israel.  The  people 
of  Ephraim  had  drifted  from  an  exclusive  devotion 


346  the  myths  of  Israel 

to  Jehovah  from  the  time  that  Jeroboam  set  up  his 
symbols  of  worship  at  Bethel  and  Dan.  The 
Phoenician  princess,  whom  Ahab  made  his  queen, 
established  the  luxurious  cult  of  Baal  and  Astarte 
above  the  humbler  forms  of  worship  of  the  God 
of  Israel,  and  pursued  the  prophets  with  cruel 
persecutions,  driving  those  who  escaped  slaughter 
to  the  mountains  and  caves.  But  after  Jehu 
had  accomplished  his  bloody  revolution,  and 
dogs  had  eaten  the  flesh  of  Jezebel  in  the  streets 
of  Jezreel,  there  was  a  revival  of  the  ancient 
faith  and  the  teachers  of  Israel  began  their  great 
work. 

It  was  not  far  from  this  time  that  the  epic  genius 
appeared  who  wove  from  shreds  of  Chaldean  fable 
and  Phoenician  myth  the  marvellous  tale  of  the 
early  world,  and  out  of  ancestral  traditions  that 
had  sprung  from  familiar  names  and  places 
wrought  the  story  of  the  covenant  with  Abraham, 
the  inheritance  of  Jacob,  and  the  great  deliverance 
from  the  bondage  of  Egypt,  which  put  the  people 
of  Israel  under  such  tremendous  obligation  of  sub- 
mission and  fidelity  to  Jehovah  their  God.  To 
impress  them  with  this,  and  to  secure  their  obedi- 
ence to  commands  necessary  to  hold  them  to  their 
allegiance,  was  doubtless  the  main  purpose  of 
this  writer,  but  he  displayed  a  creative  genius  in 


UNKNOWN  HOMER  OF  THE  HEBREWS    347 

dealing  with  his   material  which   has  never  been 
excelled  in  power. 

While  the  parts  of  the  ancient  record  into 
which  the  work  of  the  great  Jehovist  was  wrought 
are  easily  distinguished  from  the  rest,  we  cannot 
tell  how  far  he  made  use  of  material  already  exist- 
ing in  written  or  unwritten  form,  any  more  than 
we  can  tell  how  far  Homer  derived  the  episodes 
of  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  from  the  floating 
tales  and  traditions  of  the  time,  and  how  far  they 
were  creations  of  his  own  brain.  But  there  is  no 
doubt  that  he  gave  a  certain  unity  to  what  was 
before  detached  and  incoherent,  and  transmuted 
his  material  with  the  fiery  touch  of  genius  that 
gave  it  durability  and  an  unfading  lustre.  It  is  to 
the  Jehovist  writer  that  we  owe  the  never-to-be- 
forgotten  pictures  of  the  Books  of  Genesis  and 
Exodus. 

Oppressed  with  what  seemed  to  be  a  hopeless 
tendency  to  evil  in  mankind  in  his  own  day,  but 
inspired  by  an  invincible  faith  in  the  righteousness 
of  Israel's  God,  and  by  a  yearning  for  the  purity 
and  simplicity  of  the  days  when  Israel's  fore- 
fathers dwelt  in  tents,  the  Jehovist  gave  us  the 
immortal  story  of  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  the  fall 
of  man,  in  which  there  was  a  strain  of  profound 
philosophy  that  has    pervaded  religious   doctrine 


1 


348  THE    MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

ever  since.  His  sombre  theory  of  human  de- 
pravity was  carried  still  further  in  the  story  of 
Cain  and  Abel,  which  showed  that  the  innocent 
offspring  of  the  first  couple  was  slain,  and  only 
the  guilty  propagated  the  early  generations  of 
men,  evolving  but  a  single  family  worthy  of  pres- 
ervation, when  a  disappointed  deity  destroyed 
the  rest  with  a  great  flood.  Little  of  the  story 
of  the  Deluge,  as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  is  from 
the  pen  of  the  Jehovist,  but  it  was  he  who  ex- 
plained the  event  as  the  result  of  the  repentance 
and  grief  of  the  Lord  that  he  had  made  man, 
because  "  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of 
his  heart  was  only  evil  continually."  He  gave 
the  touches  most  vividly  remembered  of  the  dis- 
mal rain  of  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  the  resting 
of  the  ark  on  Mount  Ararat,  and  the  sending  forth 
of  the  raven  and  the  dove ;  and  he  gave  the  hope- 
less turn  to  the  covenant  of  the  Lord,  in  return 
for  sacrifice,  that  he  would  curse  the  ground  no 
more  for  man's  sake,  "  for  that  the  imagination  of 
his  heart  is  evil  from  his  youth."  Touches  of  the 
same  gloomy  philosophy  appear  in  the  dispersion 
of  the  presumptuous  tower-builders  of  Shinar. 

It  is  in  the  Jehovist  document  that  we  can 
trace  a  continuous  line  of  ethnic  myths  with 
wonderful    depth    and    variety  of    meaning.     The 


UNKNOWN   HOMER   OF  THE   HEBREWS         349 

writer  had  at  his  command,  in  oral  or  written 
form,  stories  of  the  patriarchs,  or  imagined  an- 
cestors of  the  people;  some  of  them  perhaps 
existed  in  more  than  one  version,  but  it  was  in 
the  use  made  of  them  that  the  power  of  his 
genius  mainly  appears.  The  common  progenitor 
of  the  Semitic  peoples  was  consecrated  as  the 
special  ancestor  of  Israel  by  a  covenant  with 
the  Lord  (Jehovah);  and  it  is  the  Jehovist  who 
gives  us  the  impressive  picture  of  the  wanderer 
from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  beneath  the  number- 
less stars,  when  a  deep  sleep  and  a  horror  of 
great  darkness  fell  upon  him,  as  the  solemn 
prophecy  of  affliction  and  deliverance  was  made, 
and  the  weird  vision  of  a  smoking  furnace  and 
a  flaming  torch  passed  over  the  sacrifice  of  the 
covenant. 

The  line  of  the  ethnic  myths  of  Israel  is  clearly 
traceable  in  the  writings  of  the  Jehovist,  from 
Ararat  to  Sinai.  The  curse  of  Canaan  for  the 
gross  filial  disrespect  of  one  of  the  sons  of 
Noah  was  enough  to  justify  and  explain  the 
contempt  and  menial  servitude  in  which  the 
tribes  were  held  that  Israel  had  subjugated. 
Early  death  was  a  sign  of  divine  disfavor,  and 
before  Abram  set  out  to  take  possession  of  the 
land  which  was   to   be   the    heritage  of    his    pos- 


350  THE   MYTHS   OF   ISRAEL 

tcrity,  the  brother  died  who  was  to  be  the  an- 
cestor of  Israel's  traditional  enemies,  Moab  and 
Amnion ;  and  though  his  son  Lot,  through 
Abram's  intervention,  was  saved  from  the  fate 
of  Sodom,  it  was  in  hideous  incest  that  the 
hated  Moabites  and  Ammonites  had  their  origin. 

The  people  of  the  Arabian  deserts  were  thrust 
out  from  the  family  of  Abraham  in  the  quaint 
story  of  Ishmael  and  his  Egyptian  mother,  while 
Israel's  origin  was  sanctified  by  divine  promise 
in  the  only  son  of  the  "  princess "  (Sarah), 
whose  very  name  (Isaac)  was  expressive  of  joy. 
In  the  charming  tale  of  the  marriage  of  Isaac 
with  Rebekah  is  figured  the  ancient  amity  with 
Syria,  and  in  it  also  the  later  alliance  of  that 
country  with  Northern  Israel  is  sanctified.  Most 
deeply  expressive  of  all  mythic  stories  is  that  of 
the  twin  children  of  the  Syrian  mother,  the  war- 
like hunters  of  the  red  and  shaggy  region  of 
Edom  and  Mount  Seir,  and  the  peaceful  dwellers 
in  tents  who  supplanted  these  by  superiority  of 
mental  resource  and  the  potency  of  paternal 
blessing. 

In  the  lonely  journey  of  Jacob  to  the  land  of 
his  mother's  nativity,  and  the  vision  of  renewed 
promise  on  the  ancient  height  of  Luz,  there  is 
a  strain  of    exalted  poetry.     As    Jacob   embodied 


UNKNOWN   HOMER   OF  THE   HEBREWS        351 

with  marvellous  condensation  the  characteristics 
of  Israel  as  a  race,  so  in  the  birth  of  his  sons 
by  the  two  Syrian  wives  and  their  handmaids 
was  figured  with  a  few  clear  strokes  the  origin 
and  relationship  of  the  tribes.  Again,  the  su- 
perior skill  of  Israel  and  the  success  that  comes 
from  divine  favor  were  illustrated  in  the  ac- 
quisition of  Laban's  property,  and  out  of  the 
jealousy  and  quarrels  which  it  engendered  came 
the  ancient  division  of  possessions  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  bounds  of  Syria. 

The  story  of  Joseph,  which  has  charmed  so 
many  generations  of  the  children  of  men,  both 
young  and  old,  is  at  once  an  exaltation  of  the 
people  of  the  Northern  Kingdom  of  Israel  and 
a  mythical  explanation  of  the  falling  of  the 
tribes  under  the  sway  of  Egypt,  and  their  pres- 
ervation there  until  deliverance  came.  The  form 
in  which  we  have  it  is  a  blending  of  two  different 
versions,  but  it  is  in  the  epic  material  of  the 
Jehovist  that  we  find  those  episodes  and  ex- 
pressions that  always  live  in  the  memory.  It  is 
he  who  tells  us  of  the  father's  peculiar  affec- 
tion, and  of  its  token  in  the  long-sleeved  tunic 
(the  "  coat  of  many  colors "),  and  of  the  tri- 
umphant test  of  virtue  in  the  house  of  the 
Egyptian    master.       The    experience    in    prison, 


352  THE    MYTHS    OF   ISRAEL 

and  the  liberation  through  the  interpretation  of 
dreams,  are  from  another  hand,  as,  for  the  most 
part,  is  the  account  of  the  exaltation  to  power 
and  the  first  visit  of  the  famine-stricken  brethren. 
But  all  the  touching  passages  with  reference  to 
the  sad  old  patriarch  in  the  land  of  Canaan, 
and  his  tender  fondness  for  the  remaining  child 
of  his  old  age ;  the  yearning  of  Pharaoh's  officer, 
amid  his  grandeur,  toward  the  humble  visitors 
from  his  father's  house,  and  especially  for  the 
one  brother  who  was  his  own  mother's  son ; 
Judah's  pathetic  plea,  and  Joseph's  weeping  reve- 
lation of  himself, — in  short,  all  those  strokes 
that  touch  the  everlasting  fountains  of  human 
joy  and  sorrow,  —  came  from  the  Homeric  teller 
of  Israel's  ancient  story. 

But  not  alone  the  covenant  and  promise  that 
bound  a  heedless  and  faithless  people  to  sub- 
mission to  their  mighty  deity  was  the  theme  of 
that  ancient  and  unknown  genius  of  the  Hebrew 
race.  He  had  to  tell  of  the  still  more  sacred 
bond  of  gratitude  that  came  from  the  fulfilment 
of  promise  in  the  deliverance  from  Egyptian 
bondage,  the  passage  of  a  drear  and  hostile 
wilderness,  and  full  possession  of  the  land  which 
the  people  now  enjoyed.  Centuries  had  gone 
by,    and    traditions    of    those    wonderful    experi- 


UNKNOWN    HOMER   OF  THE    HEBREWS        353 

ences,  which  had  long  passed  from  generation 
to  generation  by  word  of  mouth,  had  grown 
dim.  The  conflicts  of  the  kingdoms,  the  lapses 
from  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  the  making  of 
written  records,  and  the  diversion  of  men's  minds 
from  the  treasured  past,  were  making  the  people 
forgetful  of  their  sacred  heritage  and  their  obli- 
gations to  the  national  God. 

No  doubt  the  traditions  of  deliverance  from 
Egyptian  bondage  gathered  around  the  name 
of  Moses,  who  had  held  the  escaping  people  to 
obedience  and  discipline  through  fear  of  the 
terrible  deity  in  whose  name  he  spoke ;  but  it 
was  the  Jehovist  writer  who  created  the  august 
figure  of  the  deliverer  and  the  lawgiver  which 
has  overshadowed  Judaism  to  this  day.  Not  all 
of  the  story  of  the  Exodus  is  from  his  pen,  but 
to  him  we  owe  the  picture  of  Moses  as  a  herds- 
man in  Midian  when  the  God  of  his  people  re- 
vealed himself  in  fire  in  the  wilderness  of  Mount 
Horeb  and  gave  the  promise  of  deliverance.  It 
was  he  who  first  told  of  the  signs  and  wonders 
wherewith  Pharaoh  was  constrained  to  let  the 
people  go,  —  of  the  guidance  by  flame  and 
smoke ;  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea ;  and  the 
awful  theophany  of  Mount  Sinai,  when  the  trum- 
pet blew  so  loud.  All  this  led  up  to  the  first 
2  A 


^54  THE   MYTHS  OF    ISRAEL 

divine  commands  whose  ineffaceable  durability 
was  symbolized  by  the  writing  of  God's  finger 
on  tables  of  stone. 

The  grandiose  conceptions  of  this  writer,  and 
the  power  with  which  he  gave  them  expression, 
make  him  the  veritable  Homer  of  the  Hebrews, 
albeit  his  purpose  was  so  much  more  than  his 
personality  that  men  failed  to  record  his  name. 
Personality  and  authorship  were  deemed  of  no  ac- 
count when  his  work  was  used  as  raw  material  and 
mingled  with  other  matter  by  a  prosaic  compiler. 
The  work,  broken  and  disfigured  though  it  be,  can 
be  identified,  but  the  author  remains  in  mystery. 

The  composition  of  the  work  perhaps  began 
in  those  troublous  days  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel, 
when  the  prophets  were  slain  or  driven  to  con- 
cealment in  the  caves  of  the  mountains.  There 
is  suggested  a  coincidence  in  ancient  Hebrew  his- 
tory that  fascinates  the  imagination.  The  epi- 
sodes of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  incorporated  in  the 
Book  of  Kings,  with  their  miracles  and  marvels, 
were  mostly  taken  from  the  Ziaggadas  of  a  time 
much  later  than  the  events  with  which  they  are 
connected.  But  they  give  us  the  picture  of  one 
of  those  potent  prophets  who  always  appeared 
as  watchmen  of  the  Lord  in  Israel  in  critical 
times.     He  may  have  lurked  here    and    there   on 


UNKNOWN    HOMER   OF  THE   HEBREWS        355 

the  borders  of  Syria  or  Phoenicia,  getting  word 
of  the  wicked  ways  of  Ahab,  who  sought  his 
death  as  a  "trembler  of  Israel."  He  may  have 
sojourned  in  obscure  abodes  and  concealed  him- 
self from  time  to  time  on  Mount  Carmel.  In 
moods  of  desperation  he  may  have  retired  to 
the  solitudes  of  Mount  Horeb  and  found  new 
inspiration  in  the  "  still,  small  voice  "  of  God  in 
the  desert  wildernesses.  Watching  for  his  hour 
and  covering  his  movements  with  mystery,  he 
may  have  had  a  decisive  hand  in  the  revolutions 
at  Damascus  and  Samaria  when  Hazael  and  Jehu 
usurped  the  thrones  of  Benhadad  and  Ahab,  and 
made  way  for  the  revival  of  Jehovah's  power  in 
the  land  of  Ephraim. 

If  this  be  so,  may  not  one  of  the  productions 
of  the  great  religious  ferment,  which  then  began, 
have  been  the  sacred  history  of  Israel  which  em- 
bodied the  covenant  with  Abraham,  the  promise 
to  Jacob,  the  preservation  by  Joseph,  the  deliver- 
ance through  Moses,  and  set  forth  the  com- 
mands of  the  great  Jehovah  ?  May  not  the 
author  of  this  production  have  been  the  myste- 
rious prophet  of  Mount  Carmel  who  was  the 
terror  of  Jezebel  and  the  hope  of  Israel  in  a 
dark  and  bloody  time,  and  whose  personality  was 
veiled  behind  the  names  of  Elijah  and  Elisha  ? 


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